Seduction
by kaisergeass92
Summary: She was crazy and with how things had been faring, it was inevitable that he would come to this conclusion. Her being a notorious super villain from a world of Viking warriors, were only minor inconveniences to what would happen if he went and failed the plan.But he would do it. Steve just hopes that Thor never finds out he's decided to seduce his baby sister for the greater good.
1. Prelude

_**Hey guys, I got a new story that I loved to much to not publish on here. It's something I don't see much, but loved the minute it swam around my head.**_

 ** _I give all my near un-stupid and clear, editing credit to my wonderful Beta Krystal Lazuli._**

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except my fangirl heart, everything else that is great and wonderful belongs to Marvel and Disney.**_

 _ **Let's get to it.**_

* * *

Thor's little sister was crazy.

He knew this, his team knew this, Manhattan knew this, America knew this, the world knew this, heck, the entire universe probably knew this.

He was not a normal person.

Never was from the minute he had been born with his weak and underdeveloped body. It had just gotten worse after his transformation. Heaven only knows that the term became nonexistent after the war, and that's not even including the years he's spent in the present time. No, he wasn't normal in any way, but he could at least say he was still the most morally sane person around.

Well, at least in the bunch he hangs around with.

Which is kind of sad seeing he was a soldier of war, a trained weapon created by the government to protect his country, and yet…. he was still the number one most voted person on his team that everyone would want to be by their side through whatever challenge lays ahead. The one whose job is literally to kill for a living, is considered to be the kindest and humblest person in his team.

…... or at least that's what Tony keeps whining about every time he showed the team those vanity magazines of his. While also proceeding to complain for hours on end about his inability to be the center of attention when Steve kept taking all the spotlight for being the goodie-goodie that he was.

Ignoring the selfishness behind the man's words, it, _in a very small sense_ , did prove that he was somewhat decent in regards to many things.

So he at least had some say in knowing what was crazy and not. Coming back to his first and previous statement-

There was a loud rumble as the ground shook and vibrated around him. Steve bit his lip and quickly slammed himself behind an overturned car as the ground shook. The wind picked up and he shut his eyes, barely avoiding the large dust cloud that rushed past him from the fight a few meters from him. He felt the whirlwind around him start to settle and he let himself relax a bit. He let out a cough and pushed himself away from the car, waving the lingering dust far from him. He stayed low, even when he managed to look from the side of his cover perfectly. He couldn't see the mayhem going on, but he could still pick up all the insanity of battle as clear as day. There were several sounds of clashing metal, gunshots, thunder and so much more. He sighed and then struggled to get right back up. When he was on his feet he lifted his hand up to his ear.

Yeah, Loki was crazy. In the words of Clint and Tony, batshit crazy, and he agreed 100 percent. "So, this day took a turn for the worse." He chuckled ruefully. "By the colorful language I hear, I see that the plan went horribly wrong."

He heard a grunt through the earpiece followed by static and a whistle from his side. He looked up and saw Clint wave at him from atop of a perch, hidden behind a widow pillar in the building right next to him. His face was full of displeasure as he grunted into the mike again. "If I had a nickel, for every time that happened Cap, I'd probably be richer than the idiot heading your way."

Steve raised a brow. "Wha-?"

On cue, a loud smash was heard as ' _something_ ' crashed into the car beside Steve. Who scooted away in the nick of time and completely avoided getting squashed by the flying debris from the impact. He coughed pushing himself closer to his hiding place as a new dust cloud rose and flew past him. With squinted eyes he looked over and there, in another horribly destroyed vehicle, was the dented suit of gold and red armor of one badly beaten Iron man.

As the dust settled, the suit let out a loud groan and whine as it attempted to move. It failed.

Ignoring the loud clashes, and still making sure to stay hidden, Steve crouched and got closer to the man. "Hey-Hey! _Tony!_ You still with us over there?!"

The suit gave another loud groan, trying to move. It fell back in its dent, groaned, shook his head and tried once again to move out of its confine. There was a horrible churn of metal, and scraping before finally it gave up and slouched back into its molded hole. There was a wiring noise and the faceplate opened, disappearing into the helmet, revealing a bruised brunet man with a very sardonic look. "Aaaand I'm stuck." The man blew an exasperated breath and touched his forehead with his hand, moving the few strands of hair away. "Well that does it. I'm throwing in the towel for today…. I'm out. The rest is up to you guys, remember me well."

Tony looked over at Steve, ignoring the exasperated look at his response, and flexed his hand in a mocking wave. "Why hello Ste-Ugggh, crap!" He gripped his head. "Why is my head killing me?! Am I bleeding, god I hope not. I really don't want stitches again. That doctor sucks at putting them on and I know for sure Coulson's gonna make sure I get him." Tony growled letting his hand fall away. He looked up at the sky and groaned. "Seriously, why?! Who the hell punches that hard and more importantly, who the hell went and invited Thor's crazy little sister, _who caused all this_ , to the god damn fucking show in the first place!"

Clint grunted, aiming his bow in the direction Tony came from. He turned back to the group letting go of his arrow and started walking towards them. After a few seconds, an explosion followed as Clint got to Tony's side. He had an annoyed scowl on his face as he glared down at the goateed man. "Oh I don't know tin head, maybe she was just in the neighborhood and stopped by to say hi…. or _maybe_ it's due to the damn taunt _you_ made on live television calling said crazy sister out!" Clint all but yelled as he dodged behind the car when a large rock flew towards him and missed only by a few inches.

He straightened up again, dusted himself off, and looked back over at Iron man from a place where he wouldn't be so easily targeted by said maniacal goddess. He pointed at Stark, a stern look on his face. "I told you. I god damn told you to stop before you said anything more stupid and then you went and did the damn opposite." Clint groaned before shaking his head in disappointment. Much of which looked to be aimed at himself. "I knew it. I knew I should've let Thor beat the shit out of you the first time you opened your mouth, but I still went and protected your ass. I just knew you were going to fuck us over today and I was this close to getting access to the studios all you can eat breakfast bar before all this shit happened. Fuck you Stark!" Clint flipped him off and the brunet dramatically gasped.

Steve really wanted to hit them both, but stopped himself when there was a firm confirmation from the mics in a woman's voice. "Why you stopped Thor is something I still don't fully understand either Clint. Maybe the mayor of New York would have thanked you personally for that seeing as our idiot went and caused millions of dollars in damage to the east side of New Jersey just because he couldn't keep his mouth shut for an hour. Or at least you would've gotten to taste that supreme loaded hashbrowns they had at the end of the food line. It was very good."

"Aughhhhh and it was supreme! I'm going to kill you Stark!"

Just as Tony finally got a weary look staring at the angered archer, a woman landed beside Tony jumping down from a nearby ledge. Tony flinched and pouted when the woman gave him a smirk before proceeding to pull on his arm harshly. A second later he was creaking out of his entrapment and stumbling to keep himself straight up. Stabilized and on his feet, Tony grunted, a pout still on his face as he stared at the red head, hunching his shoulders and rubbing an arm. "That actually hurt Agent Romanoff, physically and emotionally."

Natasha frowned and raised a brow. "Be lucky I don't continue what she started Stark or at least let Clint take over. Just what were you thinking you idiot?"

Stark twitched and scowled. "Idiot?!"

Clint looked over to where the action was still taking place, took notice that he wasn't the point of attention anymore and when it was safe, walked over to the duo. Steve sighed and followed behind Clint from the car, his shield still up and ready. Clint glared at Tony again as he poked him in the chest. "Yeah, you tin-headed idiot, my starving stomach aside look what's left of freaking New Jersey man. Sure I'll admit, reminiscing and glorifying the trashing we give the usual villain or two is funny and all but, did you really think you could call that crazy lunatic, _'a crazy cuckoo head that was barely worth the trouble'_ on national television, and expect to not get a response like this. _From Loki!?_ " Clint pointed towards the direction from where the heavy blast resounded and everyone turned back in time to see a large man speeding their way.

They moved in time and the man crashed into what remained of the two cars beside them instead. Seeing the man was okay, everyone turned back to Stark with a look, ignoring the large man groaning beside them. Stark had the decency to look embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head. "I…well…" He let out a laugh before frowning. "Well! H-how was I supposed to know this would happen?! I didn't even know our jolly green alien not-friend watched Good Morning Today!? Tell me anybody who did!?"

Clint scoffed. "She probably doesn't genius, but seeing as you demanded it be shown on the Jumbotron to liven up New York first thing in the morning, Yeah…. it's going to get around doofus."

There was another groan and Steve looked over at the blond struggling to get up from the destroyed cars. Steve frowned and extended his hand as he got closer. "Thor, are you okay?"

The blond groaned, cradling his head and taking his hand. "A-aye my friend. Loki isn't pulling her punches back in the least.…she is not pleased at all."

Natasha frowned and then looked around. "Hey, pause for a minute. Has anybody seen or heard from Bruce?"

"Oh my. Now I wouldn't worry too much about him right now. You lot have too much on your plate for that at the moment." A voice resounded above them.

Everyone's head swivel upwards and they all got into a defensive position seeing the figure above them. Steve frowned, gripping his shield tighter, looking at the hooded, green clad woman floating over them, barely 100 feet in the air.

Her face wasn't visible, but you could still see her grinning smirk under her oversized hood and helmet. Her heavy-looking clothes flew in the wind alongside her cape. Everything she wore was so large they draped over her in multiple baggy layers that might have been more comfortable and well suited on her had she been a male, but on her made her look so small and at times not threatening.

This was not one of those times.

Despite the underwhelming appearance of the female, it did nothing to take off the edge they always felt when having to face their teammate's sister. Thor's very powerful, evil baby sister.

Steve glared and lifted his shield up towards her in a pointing action. "Loki…...what did you do with Banner?"

Loki tilted her head from right to left, making her helmet rattle side to side. She hummed, her voice muted as always from the large hood always casting over her head, and raised a finger to her lips. "Hmm, well, I wouldn't say I did something per se. So you can at least have that piece of mind. Though I will admit I might have pushed him into taking a quick break. A small relocation on top of a non-consensual nap if you wanted to get _real_ technical." She added the last bit with a taunting smirk.

Beside him, Natasha raised her hand devoid of her handheld weapon to her ear. "Hill…...do you have eyes on Banner?"

Thor grunted on his other side. He raised his hand, waiting for his hammer to come to him and looked at his wayward sibling. He never once looked away, even when his hammer hurled back into his hand and he pointed it at her. He growled "Sister, you had better not have harmed the son of Banner. He has done nothing to you."

Loki scoffed. "I think the hole on the man of Iron's floor from long ago begs to differ."

Steve could almost hear the annoyance in the way Loki mocked and glared back at Thor's stricken face. Well…...he assumed she did nobody, lest Thor, could really tell seeing as she had over seventy-five percent of her face completely covered by her unfit outfit. How Thor still had any bit of hope for her was still a mystery seeing the pure antagonism his sister seemed to hold for him.

Loki crossed her arms, ignoring the way Steve and the rest of his team kept his eyes on her and focused on Thor. "First thing first; I'm not your sister you Oaf. When will you ever get that through your thick hard head?" She sighed and shook her head. "I hope soon, because it is pitiful to see you cling to such a lie so pathetically." Thor growled angrily, though it did nothing to hide the pained look that flashed in his eyes at his sister's hard words.

Steve looked back up in time to see Loki look away from her brother and towards the ground. _"…Maybe never knowing you."_ Loki whispered so low and listless that he was sure no one heard. If Steve hadn't strained his ears, he probably wouldn't have heard it all either. He chose to ignore that, especially when he saw that Thor _had_ heard and his eyes had widened in response.

No, Steve shook his head, he did not want to think about all that at the moment.

Loki swiveled her head back, putting one hand on her hip and the other waving it around nonchalantly. "Well, whatever. I won't waste my time on such hopeless endeavors when there's more important matter at hand." She looked over at Natasha and smiled. "You, the spy."

Natasha tensed beside him, both hands going to her weapon, as did Clint. Natasha frowned and looked up at Loki. "Well that's surprising, you're acknowledging me. I would be flattered if only I didn't know any better." Natasha took a step towards Clint. "I'm assuming you're going to tell us about Banner if you actually bothered to waste your breath on me."

Loki gave another scoff. "Ooooh, you really are a cheeky mortal aren't you? I knew there was a reason I liked you." Loki rubbed her chin, smirking as Natasha frowned at her words. " But you do have a point, I do have something to say, not about the giant but something akin to it." She smiled. "Now here I just assumed all of you were idiots. Thank the Norn's the only woman on the team, the saintly captain, the giant and, at times, the hawk man have some form of intelligence to cancel out the stupidity _others_ might have." Loki smiled sadistically. "Sorry to say that they leave nothing to be desired."

Natasha smiled coldly. "Very understandable, we have to tolerate them at times as well."

Tony choked on his saliva behind them, and Clint tried to muffle his laughter and keep a straight face. He failed horribly. Thor on the other hand looked confused by the whole thing. He was about to say something when Tony beat him to it. "Uh…you do know we're still standing right here."

Loki smiled at them, startling the brunette. "And both of you look pretty doing just that. Maybe, if you kept it that way, then maybe your green troll thing wouldn't be stuck in Guam at the moment." She said with dark contempt, clenching her fists. "If it wasn't bad enough the man of iron actually attempted to insinuate he was above me, the idiot oaf had to go and try to defend my _'honor'_ in front of national television. In front of so many _'humans'_ without a hint of shame."

Loki let out a deep breath and sighed as she looked up to the sky. While Thor had the decency to look somewhat guilty, but without regret, Tony mimicked the same sentiments only they were ten-times more arrogant than Steve would like. She shook her head and looked back down with a heavy sight. "Now do you see where I'm going with this? I think that enough motive for me to acquire some form of payback don't you think?"

Natasha sighed, her eyes closing. She lifted her hand to her ear. "Hill…"

The mics came back to life. "Already on it. Shield has spotted him and there on their way to his location. He's okay, he's reverted back and passed out, but okay. It seems he took a big fall, knocked the hulk right out of him."

Steve frowned, still keeping his eyes on Loki. Loki noticed and looked over at the Captain. She tilted her head and then smirked. "As I said before you really should stop worrying about him." Her smile widened. "You should worry more about yourself."

In a flash Loki was in front of Steve. The captain stumbled back, being so close in contact with the woman in a blink of an eye. Loki was so close he could see the color of her green eyes shine through her shaded face. The glow of magic glossing through her eyes as she smirked wickedly.

He tensed and swung his arm, but she was quicker.

Next thing Steve knew, his body was in blinding pain and there's dust all over him as he lays on the floor of some unknown building. In front of him, the rest of the wall he went through collapsed instantly. He groaned, pulling himself to a fetal position quickly to avoid the falling debris. When the rest of the structure started to hit the ground, he realized it was time to take his leave. Once sure that he was able to move correctly, he pushed himself a little harder and got himself to stumble up into a sitting position. Still dazed, he manages to cover his head as the roof of the un-stabilized building starts to deteriorate over him.

Not enough to endanger him, but he wouldn't push his luck in saying a large piece _wouldn't_ fall on top of him. He started coughing as the noise started to come back as scrambled racket. He tries to ignore the horrible pain in his stomach, but the ringing in his ear is what gets him, making the horrible noise around him ten times worse. He also tries to shakes his head to dislodge it, especially as he finally manages to get up only to stumbles at its disorientation. The only thing his actions manages to do is make his world spin.

When he forced himself to calm down, he's finally able to hear the voice calling out to him through his earpiece and the world stops spinning. He groans, grips his stomach, and coughs again before he even thinks of raising a hand to his ear. He closes his eyes. "Nat…"

"Steve! Thank god you're okay we-" There's a loud explosion that knocked the rest of the dizzy spell out of Steve and forces him to stumble back several steps. He shakes his head, ignores the pain and pushes himself to walk out of the building despite his hesitation.

He pressed on his com again. _"GUYS, CAN YOU HEAR ME!"_

When he gets no response he curses, raises his shield and bullets through the dust cloud. After dodging blowing debris he manages to ram through his crash site and onto the newly forced battlefield. Steve arrives just in time to see Loki grab hold of Thor's waist from behind him in surprise and pull him back and over her head. With a burst of speed, Loki pushed them back towards the ground letting him go a second before the impact and Thor crashed into the ground headfirst. The ground shook as the man burrowed into the crater and for a minute Steve was genuinely worried about the blond man as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, slumping back onto the floor lifelessly. " _ **THOR!**_ "

Immediately he ran to him, and while the rest of the team would have liked to follow they didn't have that luxury seeing as Loki was already on the move towards the next avenger.

Steve grit his teeth seeing Loki appear in front of Tony, and quickly decided to detour from his route to the blond man to try and intervene the fight between Iron man and Loki. Especially seeing as, it wasn't going in the man's favor. Loki kept dodging every one of the man's hits and kicks, and shots effortlessly, serving only to anger Tony going from his exasperated growl. It kept going on for a good minute until Loki managed to grab both of his gauntlets and push them up so the blasters died firing into the sky under the woman's hold. They were crushed under her grip and Steve could hear Tony grunt in pain from his place. He didn't hesitate and quickly flung his shield in their direction, never slowing down as he made towards them.

Loki immediately leaned back and successfully dodged the shield.

Tony did not.

The projectile slammed into the man's helmet so hard it caused Tony to snap his head back harshly if only to avoid having it broken all together. All while still being locked in the woman's vice grip. Tony groaned in pain and Steve hissed, his face scrunching in guilt. "Sorry!"

Tony let out a hiss and turned to him. "OH GOD DAMMIT ST- "

Steve eyes widened. "Tony look-!"

Loki taking advantage of the distraction lifted up her legs and bent them up to her chest. Without hesitation she let them spring forward and connect with Stark's chest, loosening her grip, and kicking him away with extreme force. Tony was sent flying into the crumbling building that once housed Steve. The only thing that showed he was ever in the woman grips were the man's ripped gauntlets still in her hands. Steve took a second to look in the direction of Tony, heard his still vibrant groans through the mic despite the entire building proceeding to fall over him, and quickly turned back to their smiling enemy.

Loki's head quickly flinched up though and she let go of the crushed gauntlets. Immediately her hands slammed in a clap right in front of her face. The arrow that whizzed through the air silently stood still in her hands, it was beeping and Loki quickly snapped it half and doused the explosion in both hands away from her person. Loki gave a laugh. "Oh, not this time little bird man."

Loki raised her hand, smoke being let out, and the tiny shrapnel of the remaining arrow floated around her. Then they pointed in the direction it came from and shot themselves toward it. Steve heard a yell of surprise and a curse and he saw Clint dodge from his hiding place behind a bus. He was sent flying away from the exploding vehicle and crashed harshly into a pile of rubble.

"Clint!" Natasha looked over her car and was quickly discharging her guns in the direction of the floating green alien. Loki raised one finger without much effort and a green shield kept the flying projectiles away. She smirked and with another wave the green shield grew to her size. Steve's stomach flipped in terror.

He turned in the redhead's directions and yelled. "Natasha, **_move!_** "

Natasha's eyes widened as Loki waved her fingers and the shield was soon flying in the direction of the woman. Natasha couldn't move fast enough and was soon flying back into the direction of a pile of rubble. Steve didn't hesitate and made his way towards her. He jumped up on top of a car and headed in her direction, managing to catch her in midair just in the nick of time. Rolling away from the rubble and the incoming shield, they both crashed into the ground as everything around them exploded. The burst of wind caused Steve to let go of Natasha and she rolled away from him as they both laid on the ground.

Steve gritted his teeth and groaned, the impact and sounds jarring his bones and causing his ears to ring. His stomach felt like it was on fire, still he bit his lip and pain back and managed to push himself up to his knees. He breathed heavily and looked around. When he spotted the woman, he flinched. "Nat!"

The woman whimpered, but made no huge movement signaling the underlying pain and exhaustion the blast had caused her. Steve groaned attempting to stand and get closer to her. When he felt the presence near him though, his hand went to his shield instead as Loki touched down just a few feet in front of him.

He gritted his teeth, gripped his shield tightly and without hesitation flung it in the direction of the Asgardian. Loki smirked before effortlessly dodging the shield with a sidestep. As it bounced around, trying to make its way to back to him, Loki appeared barely two feet in front of him, his shield landing in her hands on its return. She looked at the shield and then looked down at him with a leer on her face.

Despite looking up at her, despite that fact that he had other stuff to worry about than this, the only thing he could focus on was on just one thing only. How in the hell was her face still obscured in their positioning? Was that even possible at this point?

That clouded his mind for a second, then the next second came and he pushed the stupid nonsense question away. Using his crouch as an advantage, his leg was already sweeping at her feet.

Loki only huffed and jumped up, dodging the move effortlessly as she landed on her heels in a show off fashion only a few more steps farther away. Steve tried to stifle his hard breathing as Loki shook her head nonchalantly, her shoulders shrugging. She brought up Steve's shield to eye level and began inspecting it with a bemused smirk. Then she proceeded to balance it on her finger right in the middle of the white star, and had it spin in her hand slightly above her. To Steve's dismay her smile grew as she alternated the spinning shield between both hands without much effort or problems.

Loki finally turned to him, her parlor tricks never ending. "You must be highly disoriented to be so out of it soldier boy. I expected better from you. It's certainly a far cry from that time in Germany when we went one on one…. though, you were on your knees that time too. Now when was that again? A few months ago maybe?"

Steve frowned hearing the bemused laced words. He forced himself up to his feet, ignoring the blood, sweat, and grime caked on his face, and how out of breath he truly was. He staggered a few steps, being upright, before finally lifting up his hands into a fighting stance as he faced Loki. "It was five years, and _that-_ " He pointed at his shield. "-was just a fluke. Besides who around here said anything about me being through yet?" He fisted his hands. "Not me."

Loki smirked and shook her head. "Your team is down, your giant that's worth an army has been knocked oceans away and you stand here in front of me saying words that for some reason gives you the delusion that there is still _some_ semblance of hope left on whether or not you could actually defeat me." Loki tilted her head and gave a sharp laugh. "Are you really resorting to mocking me captain? In _your_ position?"

Steve smiled and clenched his fist. "I'm afraid not. I'm telling it to you straight Loki. If I can still get up; I can still fight. If I can at least do that, I ain't giving up just yet. Maybe you can't understand that, and you might mock me, but that's my motto. I got to many things on my plate to spare any of my time being dead. To many bullies to fight and far too many people to keep safe" Steve ignored at the way Loki had stopped spinning his shield and how her smirk all but disappeared. He smirked this time. "So…. let's cut all this chit-chat out and get to you answering the question. Is that all you got?"

Loki stared at the man, his shield still in her hand by her side. She let out a huff and let it fall to the ground. "You humans…. You are all so irritating hopeful despite being so weak and _'mortal-'"_ she said with no hidden disdain. "It actually serves to make me physically ill."

"Heh, well we'll call that a win for mankind then. Like you said, we don't have much just a whole lot of guts and spirits. We need something to fill in what we lack."

Steve was ready for anything at the moment. You had to be, when antagonizing such a short fuse enemy like Loki. Only, what he didn't expect from all the ideas that came to mind was having Loki start to laugh out loud and crisply despite her muffled appearance.

What he also didn't expect was to have her laugh right behind him.

He tensed spinning around his arm shooting out to make contact. Once again, her speed bested him and a dainty hand was lifting him a few feet off the the ground. He let his arms jab at her and frustratingly Loki dodged them all without much trouble. With her free hand she grabbed onto one of his fist, her own glowing a dark green, and gripped it tightly. Steve tensed at the startling feeling he felt on contact and tried to rip his hand away in vain. The green glow clung onto him and his left arm went numb, falling to his side lifelessly. Steve clenched his teeth but still attempted to punch the villain away with his remaining arm.

Loki sighed tiredly, as if she was dealing with a child and quickly grabbed hold of his other without much difficulty. She gave him a smug look and before he could try to escape her hold, his other limb went numb and fell to his side.

Never one to give up, he tried to struggle away, only this time the green glow covered his body and everything relaxed in a horribly unnatural way. He grunted and glared at Loki, trying his hardest to move anything he could. Nothing happened, and terror started to creep into his chest at the though of being a literal rag doll in her flimsy grip.

He let out a hiss as he looked straight at her, now that he could do nothing else. With how close he was to her, he could see the uncovered part of his captors face better than he ever could. Her nose and everything above it was still hidden, but he could still see everything beneath it. How her skin was a nice milky color and it looked very smooth and unblemished. He could see how her neck was thin despite the fact that she had been trained as a warrior for the majority of her life. Which was beginning to be mystery to him how, considering even Thor's friend Sif and Amora had thicker necks despite being warrior women just like her. Hell, he might even go and say Nat's was much more stern then what looked to be Loki's willow like trunk. He wants to believe that maybe she was just a sheltered brat and that would explain the lack of muscle on her. Only Thor was never one to hold back on telling tales of his beloved-hated sister, and some of those training montages the both of them had to go through in childhood to adolescence didn't sound so easy to anyone that had any form of common-sense.

It had to be the baggy clothes, definitely.

Her lips were a blinding red and he wondered if she used a lot of makeup on them to get it that shade of candy apple red. He was ashamed to admit that his eyes followed the way she licked her lips, how they formed into a taunting smile, and how he saw her dimples come to life when she showed what seemed to be genuine amusement.

Then he heard a small laugh and his eyes widened as he stared at the obscured part of her face. Steve only hoped the woman didn't notice the fact that he had been observing her with a far more intense look than he she did, she didn't say anything as Loki tilted her head and tightened her grip on his shirt. "You know I think she was right. There was a reason I spared you that time around. You are by far more interesting than I had expected. At least compared to your little band of misfits." Loki got closer to him and the surprisingly chuckled. "So…. I guess I'll just spare you this one more time."

Steve blinked. "Wha-?"

Loki raised a brow. "You know it might surprise you but I did have business to attend to here before I was so rudely interrupted. This wasn't planned soldier boy. Now thanks to you and your idiot five over there, I'm running late. I have something to nip out as quickly as I can, and here I am, stuck dealing with you all. Really it's all just very annoying."

Steve was speechless. Then he frowned, his eyes glaring in the woman's direction as he could only do that much. "It's not like we're asking, nor begging you to stay. Besides, you want us to believe you after you went and destroyed our city with no remorse? That this wasn't planned at all one bit. You gotta be kidding me! I sincerely doubt that Loki." Steve's glare intensified. "Even if you are telling the truth, for some god-forsaken reason, any business you have doesn't garnish any well- meaning sentiment behind it. If anything that's more troubling than you outright attacking us. Which you did mind you."

Loki sighted dramatically, rolling her eyes. "Oh no, soldier-boy doesn't trust in I. My whatever shall I do now!?" she let out a laugh as the man's look turned venomous. "Do stop with those sour looks and shut up Captain. You must know by now that I care very little for what you or your little friends believe in soldier-boy. It's not like it hurts my feeling and more importantly why would I bother to lie to your face when you're really not worth the effort in the first place."

She tapped his cheek, and if could have, he would have pulled away. He couldn't, so he had to suffer through her mocking touch, something she relished going by the sadistic grin on her face.

" _Loki…"_

She laughed. "I will say this though soldier, just know that if I had plan this out, _mind_ _you_ , we both know that you and your city would be in far more ruins then at the moment. This, all of this, was just a spur of the moment." Loki tilted her head and picked at her hand. "Whether you choose to accept it or not is up to you." She smiled raising a brow. "I hope you do know though, that contrary to everyone's believe, my world does not revolve around Thor and his ultimate demise. It also goes to say that the sentiment is far less likely for his band of idiot humans and their need to protect the world from everything."

Loki turned him to see the wrecked city and huffed. A subtle green glow flowed around them and then dissipated. Loki raised her hand and with a wave he saw the swirls of green magic appear all around the wrecked area. Every battered building, destroyed cars or damaged streets started glowing and buzzing with life as they floated up and into their previous places. With wide eyes, Steve watched as the crumbled ruins from before all started to connect, reform and repair itself back into the cityscape it once was. After a while of, despite the city still being very dirty and messy with black dust and signs of battle, a majority of the destroyed buildings and streets were back to being as new as they could be.

Steve would have said something, but he was still having trouble believing it. Loki scoffed beside him, a tad bit breathless. "I think that'll do for now. I just hope you don't expect me to clean it up as well. I think this is the part where I say we all have to do our share since it _was_ a combined effort don't you think?"

Steve flinched out of surprise at her tone. He looked to her, uncertainty displayed fully in his eyes. "What…. what are you _doing_?"

Loki tilted her head upwards, a sigh escaping her lips. "Mm…. well, I could say I did it as an act of kindness, and everything that's good in the world, but we both know I'd be lying." She licked her lips again. "I did this for purely selfish reasons. If everything's a mess around here and on high alert, my plans will have to be put on hold. I'd miss my chance to finally see it all unfold in front of my eyes." Loki scoffed. "That would be highly upsetting you know." She touched his cheek lightly. "And we wouldn't that, for both our sakes. So unlike Thor, I'm not ashamed to admit when my anger gets the best of me, and I'm not above admitting that because of that, things might have gotten out of hand. So I took back all that I did. Easy as that."

Steve frowned and stared at Loki. "Are you trying to tell me that this is your way of fixing your mistake." He stated, unable to fully understand why the woman was doing this.

She t'sked. "I would rather say I'm trying to salvage what's left of my shambled plans because of my stupid sentiments. Nothing more, nothing less."

Steve glared. "Your….your plans must be highly important for you to go to such length."

Loki paused and then let out a breathy chuckle. "You _could_ say that."

Loki pushed him away by extending her arm. He was dangling off of her hands like a wet rag and he didn't understand what he was more upset about. His weakness, her arrogance, or this odd scenario as whole that he had gotten entangled in. Steve gritted his teeth. He'd be mad at all of them. "Loki…. If you're going to do something that's ten times worse than now…. you better put everything back the way it was and continue fighting me because we…. _I_ won't let you go and cause some unwarranted terror somewhere else."

"That would be a more effective threat if you didn't look like a discarded piece of fabric in my grasp Captain. Nevertheless it's not like you or your band of misfits could stop me in the first place. Thor is barely grasping onto consciousness, your giant is gone, the man of Iron's suit is barely functioning and he's struggling to get it off as we speak. Your hawk man is unconscious and the deadly spy is barely getting her bearings. Combining all that with them being just as disoriented as you were a few minutes prior, their practically useless. Too bad they all seem to lack your _'endurance'_."

Steve frowned at her suggestive smirk and tone. He ignored it. "We'll find a way. Especially if you're so persistent about leaving. My gut is telling me that it'd be far worse to let you go now then to fight you to the death right this minute. Just what are you planning now Loki?"

Loki gave him a daunting look, biting her lips to hold back a smile as she got close to him. He could practically smell the faint scent of mint and lavender from her before he caught himself eye to eye with her hard stare. "Well wouldn't you like to know…...and wouldn't you like to figure that out."

Before Steve could utter another word, Loki was pushing him away again to arm's length. Loki let out another chuckle and Steve felt her grip lessen on his shirt. She sneered. "Heh…annoying isn't it. When you really want something only to have it always be just out of your grasp. Don't worry I know exactly how you feel and by the time you catch up, I'd have already dealt and be done with it."

"Lo-" Before he could finish he felt himself fall from her grip. The last thing he could see was a hammer fly through Loki and her dispersing from the impact. He could still see her grinning down at him, arrogance apparent on her hooded face despite her running away. Steve grunted and bit down on his lips. If he wasn't currently falling down to his probable death, he would have had the courtesy to curse her both outside and inside his head.

He just didn't have the luxury to focus on anything but trying to struggle past his numbed body to at least find a way to not die so ceremoniously. He failed horribly and felt the wind rush past him. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, bracing for impact. ' _Damn you Loki..._ '

Well, he could at least say he was wrong about that. He could still curse Loki. It just left a bitter taste knowing it would be the last thing he would do. In a way Loki did win this time and he didn't know how to feel about that.

Then there was a whoosh and he felt the impact of hitting something hard. For a second he believed he hit the ground. Then he realized that he wasn't dead, there was a hum followed by a very arrogant voice he knew very well. He opened his eyes and met with a glowing blue light and a roar of jets all around him. Steve forced his head up and met with the frowning face of one Tony Stark. "T-Tony."

"Hey angel face. You know, I once said, ' _gods let a beauty fall from the sky and into my arm_ s'. I had of course meant it to be a woman and had not implied it to be Loki who did so."

Steve chuckled in relief. He let his head fall back on the man's shoulder as he normalized his breathing. "Ah…. w-well… Jesus, that was something else. At least I know that I'm not dead yet or that I went and fell to Hell for a second there. It really was a legitimate fear for a minute when I went and heard you."

"Did you just take a _jab_ at me?! Hey, you better watch it Cap. I can still let you fall those last few feet and feel absolutely no remorse." he shook his head. " I mean seriously, how rude, and after all I did to try and save you. For shame Steven."

"Oh, give it a rest Tony. Steve are you okay?" a woman voiced resounded through his now working earpiece. Steve managed to nod, or twitch in a half-ass response.

He sighed and looked at Tony. "I can't really move any part of my body to properly answer her, I think Loki numbed everything except my face. Do you mind-"

Tony nodded and looked down at his suit. "Jarvis put it on speakerphone." There was beep and a confirmation before the Coms came to life. Tony smiled "Hey Natashlie, Capsicle is safe and sound so don't worry. Well, unless you can call numbed from the head down and currently occupying the damsel in distress part normal, then he is doing just peachy."

Steve looked at Tony with a look before looking towards his suit. "Nat, hey I'm fine really. Crudely said yes, but Tony's right. I'm numb from neck down, and if it hadn't been for him, I would've fallen to a grisly death courteously of Loki."

Stark beamed. "Thank you, that's all I wanted. Was that really so hard?" None of them bothered to say anything back.

Tony upped his repulsors until they spotted the group centering around Natasha where Steve had last left her. Both men started to touch down next to Thor, who stood cradling his head, his hammer back in his hand. Beside him, Natasha was helping Clint, who managed to straighten himself up with minor hiccups. As they set foot on ground, Natasha headed to them and looked them over. With a stern look on her face she nodded. "You okay there?"

Steve gave a grim smile. "I can't feel anything, I'm pretty winded, but overall, yeah I am."

Natasha frowned and grabbed his arm. She turned it and inspected, before letting it go and watched it fall languidly. "It looks like you got hit with a full load of muscle tranquilizers. You'll be incapacitated for hours at the very least. Otherwise except a few bruises and scratches your ferrying better than most of us." She folded her arms. "Still I'll feel better once a doctor takes a look at you back at the Helicarrier or the tower."

Tony scoffed as he adjusted Steve on his shoulder and he touched his chest. "Yeah, at least you don't have a few broken bones or better yet a few unbroken ribs that keep messing with my broken ones. It sucks. Really wish I had your weird super soldier body right about now."

Clint coughed, cradling his stomach. "Yeah, like you haven't said that before for the stupidest reasons." He winced as he stepped closer. "Though I be lying if I wasn't feeling the same way right now. I think I ripped some tendons in my legs and sprained an ankle."

Steve smiled at the grinning, wobbly man before he looked over at Thor and frowned. "Hey Thor, you okay there pal? I saw you take that hard hit to the head. You were out for a bit; should you even be standing right now?"

Thor groaned and walked over to them, a trail of blood falling to his neck from his forehead. "I am decent for now my friend. If it wasn't for the Lady Romanoff, I would still probably be out in the crater Loki left me in. I count myself lucky, though for the pain in my head and the constant bleeding, not so much. It won't stop despite my attempt to quell it."

Natasha walked over to the blond man and touched his neck. "You might need stitches for that big guy, at least until you heal yourself naturally that is. We're going to have to find a hard enough metal to go through your skin but, it seems the daunting task will be necessary. Your bleeding a bit to much for my liking. Are you feeling nauseas?"

Thor groaned as he cradled his head. "I am a tad disoriented."

Clint frowned as he stepped next to Natasha. "Then you might even have a concussion. I wouldn't doubt it. That was a mean blow to the head you got from Loki."

Thor's frown worsened cradling his head in his hands. "Aye she wasn't gentle in her attempts to take me out of the fight. I am only glad that she did only this much to you and myself my friends."

Steve frowned and looked around. "Yeah your right about that. Still can't deny it leaves a bittersweet taste to this ending with our _favorite_ nemesis." they all nodded in a jerky response and Steve couldn't blame them for being somber over admitting that.

Tony groaned and rubbed his head as he let Natasha support the other side of Steve. He looked around and scowled. "Okay first thing first, that wasn't just my imagination right? Loki actually went and fixed all the shit she destroyed! That wasn't just the blood loss making me dizzy right? Right!? Guys tell me I'm not going fucking crazy here!"

Steve frowned. "Believe me Tony, I understand."

Thor groaned and looked at the group. "I am very confused by that as well. When I saw the green glow I stood up quickly, thinking Loki would lay waste to this city. It is surprising to see that it was the opposite. For a minute I-…." Thor frowned and then shook his head as he looked at the team. "Loki she would never do something like this without reason or worse, for another one of her more nefarious purpose."

Natasha looked at Steve. "You were up there with her for a long time; you got anything that could begin to explain this?"

Steve sighted. "Nothing that sounds good. Apparently Loki was going somewhere before she

came across our mess of an interview while walking downtown. She had a purpose in mind that apparently didn't include meeting and fighting us. Apparently, it also required there to be no destruction or obstruction to keep it happening."

Clint groaned as he rubbed his head. "That doesn't sound good. Loki is normally so egotistically bold and blunt that those motivations raise so many fucking red flags. Her being normally insane is already a big issue as it is. When she's planning something and is secretive just like that, it bodes to horrible news. Believe me, it'd be trouble to have us find out her plans until the very last minute." Clint looked up, scratched his head, and groaned. "God I really don't want a repeat of the alien invasion of Manhattan again."

Tony choked on his spit and shook his head. "Oh, hell no! Do you even know how much I had to pay to help rebuild this place!? _DO_ you even know how much damage my tower took last time!? It wasn't pretty!"

Natasha frowned. "Neither was the fact that many innocents were put in danger and lost their lives."

Tony twitched. "Yeah, also that…... and once again, I think you know me well enough to know that I consider my tower worthy of having a life on its own and as its parent I have a right to be worried." he frowned, kicking the ground like a chastised toddler. "I just had it painted and fitted too."

Steve sighted, while Natasha rolled her eyes at the man. Natasha gripped Steve's arms tighter until he turned to look at her. "Regardless, good job on catching that Steve. It was fast thinking on your part to go and learn that in your current situation. Because if she actually went and resorted to cleaning up her mistake and letting us go with only these superficial injuries- "

Tony scoffed. "Speak for yourself."

"- _coming from **her** of all people, _something's gotta be up. Something that requires more attention than getting payback on Stark and Thor after the whole debacle they caused. That's too large of a deviation to not take notice or ignore so willy-nilly coming from such an arrogant and vengeful character like her."

Steve nodded. "I thought as much. Regardless, our top priority now-" He looked at his ragtag team and sighed wearily as he saw the exhaustion clear in their eyes. "-well, we have to clean ourselves up. We have to regroup with Banner and Fury and plan our next step carefully. If Loki is planning something, we need to be in peak condition to stop _it_ and/or her before she manages to accomplishes whatever it is she has in mind. Especially in light of recent events." Steve looked at Natasha. "Has Shield found Bruce yet?"

The woman nodded. "They got to him just twenty minutes prior. Good thing Loki knocked him out or else the military base would have been in danger if the big guy had taken out his anger there. They're in route to the Helicarrier as we speak, at most an hour or two out. The Quinjet should be closing in on us to take us over there as well." Natasha frowned, opening her phone. "You are right about one thing though, we all need to get checked out. Superficial injuries coming from Loki as they are, we're all still pretty banged up and no offense but having a dislocated shoulder and hip pain is not the greatest feeling in the world at the moment. I just want some medication, a shower and a comfy ass chair. Maybe even 3 to 5 shots of Vodka while I'm at it."

Tony raised a hand, his eyes lidding. "I second that. I really think I might vomit blood any minute now."

Clint groaned and also raised his arm. "I third that. Ughhh…" He gripped his stomach. "Make that four for the big bruise on my stomach."

Thor could only nod in agreement as he wiped off the sweat and blood falling over his brow. "Aye, and food. We all require food and ale. A lot of it."

Everyone agreed again and Steve nodded. "Your all right in those regards. I for one just want to feel my toes again." He looked up as the wind picked up and smiled. "I guess it's a good thing that our rides here huh?"

They all looked up his words and most sighted in relief at the sight, Tony letting out a very sarcastic whoop alongside Clint's half-raised arms. As Steve felt the wind gales increase around him from the landing jet, he looked up in the direction from where he fell.

A foreboding sense filling him up as he remembered the last few words with the Asgardian woman. Even after he was helped into the jet and strapped in, the feeling didn't disappear.

Steve only hoped his worries were just that and not something else. With her, anything's possible, having them fail miserably as they did was a clear point to that and he didn't like it. That's why he hated fighting with Loki. Even after winning or coming out of a battle alive with her, there was no doubt there was something more to it. An underhanded trick, courtesy of the otherworldly trickster, that would spoil any victory later on.

Crazy or not, Loki was never an indication to something good. In the words of Clint and Tony, it always ended in a downright, shitty-bitch of a moment.

Steve couldn't help but agree.

What once was a decent dislike, has transformed into a subtle annoying loath towards their nemeses. When it got tough, it was in these moments, these very low moments, that he couldn't help but admit that he was really just starting to plainly hate Loki.

To hell with his morality, she utterly deserved it.

He tried to move his fingers and then his toes and it only served to prove his point. Yes, she totally does deserve those negative sentiments.

He just wished he didn't feel some semblance of guilty for that.


	2. An Idea Forms

**_This chapter is a bit bigger, but I struggled through it! Once again thanks to my amazing Beta Krystal Lazuli_**

 ** _Let's get to it!_**

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my crazy imagination.**_

* * *

Steve sighed, leaning back into the infirmary bed as he rubbed his head. The nurse had just left with the doctor, putting his meal beside him. It wasn't the least bit appetizing, and he was debating if the rumble in his stomach was due to hunger or nausea. More than likely the latter.

Everyone else had left a few minutes prior, most going to their own separate infirmary room after Fury had debriefed them and forced them to get clean up. Banner had returned about 20 minutes ago and he had isolated himself right away after seeing the state of the team. Less dangerous that way, he'd said.

Fury hadn't been happy either seeing his ragged team. He was downright angry when he heard that Loki had escaped with an even more dastardly plot in the making. Which they only found out after their asses were handed to them.

After a scolding that was the size of Manhattan itself, they had all been dismissed so Fury could see what he could dig up on Loki's location before their disaster of an interview interrupted her. That and apparently, he had other important matters to see to.

When he was brought back to the Helicarrier, he had been put on a bed rest immediately. The doctor was adamant about him staying there until the muscle tranquilizers wore off. Which would have been a long time had he been his normal, weak self. In his case he would be down for, at most, maybe three hours seeing his high metabolism.

Though that might change seeing as the thing that put him on bedrest weren't any normal manmade tranquilizers. The biggest difference already being the fact he was still numb and incapable of movement an entire hour later. He just hoped that the only thing that was different between the tranquilizers he was use to and Loki's magic was just the potency and nothing else.

He tried to move his hand, and his fingers just twitched in response. He sighed, laying his head back on the pillow, somewhat happy that he could move anything at all. Still, the irritation he felt knowing there wasn't more he could do made him feel despondent. Their last confrontation kept replaying in his head and his numerous unanswered questions didn't make it any better. If anything, it actually made him feel _more_ unproductive then the fact that he was a big lump stuck in bed for an indefinite amount of time.

So with a heavy heart, he begrudgingly took the doctor's advice and let the tiredness and numbness lull him into a slight and uneasy sleep.

And a very powerful sleep at that, as he was barely able to understand the new sounds that floated around him hours later.

"Hey, _he's_ not going to eat it, so why can't I have it?"

"Tony, quit it. Your bothering him."

"I am _not_. Just look at him, sleeping like a big steroid enhanced baby. I just want the pudding, _the delicious pudding_ , that's it. _One_ he's not going to be enjoying any time soon so is incapable of missing. Case closed."

Steve groaned and before he knew it his hand reach out instinctively in front of him. There was a yelp as he gripped what seemed to be an appendage. "W-What the hell!" the strange voice from before yelled.

Steve let his eyes open and the first thing he saw was a startled Stark, his arm midway in reach to his forgotten tray. Or most specifically the pudding cup on his tray. He groaned again, lifting up his other arm to wipe his face of the remaining drowsiness. "Tony…"

The caught man smiled and pulled his arm from the slight fault in Steve's grip. "Well hello princess capsicle, fancy seeing you awake so soon. I thought you wouldn't be able to move for another hour or so. Or at least before your prince arrived and gave you a great big smooch." He made kissy noise that stopped when the man beside him slapped his arm.

Steve just blinked and looked up at Stark again before ignoring the wincing man who started complaining again. Slowly he brought his hands together and lifted them up so he can see them up close to his face. He tried to bend his hands and found them responsive, though still with a groggy feeling in them. He groaned and looked over to where Tony was and found that the other voices he heard from before were from the other two men sitting beside him, Bruce and Clint.

He raised a brow and smiled, focusing on Tony again. "That's still no excuse to take a man's pudding."

Tony frowned and crossed his arms. "All of you are some very stingy people."

Steve's head swayed and he felt someone grab his shoulder. He looked over and saw Banner smile as he adjusted his glasses with one hand while pushing Steve back onto the bed post with the other. "You've been asleep for four hours. The tranquilizers might be leaving your body as we speak, but since this is Loki's magic and all, the effects are going to be different than ours. So take it slow, you're going to be feeling pretty bad for a while."

Clint scoffed, eating an apple, leaning on his chair. "Yeah, don't listen to him. He is _ **so**_ sugarcoating it. If it's anything like that goddamn scepter of hers, you're going to be feeling like you got hit by a train for the next few days. You're going to throw up and you're going to be so out of it, I wouldn't be surprised if people start to think you might be high or something."

Steve frowned. "I think I prefer Banner's way of handling things."

"We all do." Clint smiled.

Steve chuckled before he looked at his tray and grabbed the pudding, once again right before Tony could touch it, much to his dismay. He pulled the lid open and grabbed his spoon, ignoring the sullen man beside him. He looked around, scooping some of the pudding into his mouth. "Where's Natasha and Thor?"

Steve stopped and pulled away his spoon. He stuck out his tongue and shook his head in slight disgust. "Ughhh…. butterscotch."

Tony grinned and quickly took the pudding from his hand without a second thought. He scooped a spoonful into his mouth and grinned. "Well don't mind If I do. _I_ for one like the old flavors the best."

Steve grimaced. "Go right ahead. I won't be missing it."

Banner chuckled and smiled at the antics. He adjusted his glasses again. "Nat's with Fury going over all the surveillance videos that captured our fight. Hill is doing damage control and dealing with the media….. _again_." There was a pointed look at Stark that the main plainly ignored. Bruce shook his head turning to Steve." Thor left about an hour ago to see if he could find Loki. He's eaten, his bleeding has stopped, and for the most part he's pretty much okay now. No doubt because of his incredible physiology. Since he was restless and couldn't quite sleep because of his concussion, we had to literally kick him out to do something productive since he was taking out his frustration on the poor training dummies."

Clint scoffed and he aggressively bit into his second apple, making a face at how Tony enjoyed his snack so messily. "Yeah, if you call completely burning a million-dollar facility down and destroying thousands-of-dollars' worth of training dummies with his bare hands as simple frustration, then yeah big guy's in a fussy mood. He was kicked to the curb the minute Fury had caught wind of what he did. He's not allowed back for at least a couple more hours."

Steve shook his head, wiping his mouth when he felt the drool from his deep nap. "I'm not really surprised. It actually makes me pretty glad I was out for most of that confrontation." He paused and tilted his head. "What made him go after Loki inste-" Steve paused again. "Wait, don't answer that, it's obvious why, but rather knowing Loki is long gone by now, why is he still trying locate her? He should know by now that it's only a fruitless endeavor.

Tony licked his lips. "Yeah. Well, Banner actually came up with that the minute he started feeling a bit too green and a tad bit red with the whole ordeal of dealing with Point break. In my opinion, I guess Loki wiping our butts, _his_ most specifically, struck a chord with the big blonde man. Which by the way-." Tony's face got a serious look. "-How was she able to do that in the first place. Last couple of times we went all out with her did not end up like that. Not like that at all. _I_ for one, do not like losing."

Steve huffed. "None of us do Tony."

"Yeah, but we did _**Cap**_. All I want to know is how was she able to beat us so fucking easily?!"

Steve frowned and unconsciously he huffed. " _Language_."

Tony's anger was wiped away. He looked at him with raised brows and then snorted. "Seriously?"

Steve had the decency to blush. "Uhh….Yeah….it-it kind of slipped out."

Tony rolled his eyes leaning on the dresser of the room. He put his cup down and raked a hand through his hair. "Whatever man. Look the point it is, Loki kicked our asses. Very soundly and very painfully. Something she hasn't and shouldn't have been able to do." He crossed his arms. "Sure she took us by surprise, but we were still at our peak strength and health, and for some goddamn reason she was still able to do so. I mean, we beat her skinny little butt after an entire alien invasion a few years ago, and a month ago we had no problem beating her ass in Australia after that whole Doom incident…. So how the hell did this even happen then!?"

Clint raised a brow. "Well, if we want to get real technical. Thor and his warrior friends were the ones that stopped her in Australia. Most of the other time she just successfully escapes after a quick bout and a gloating speech, because that's how big of an asshole she is. On that note, it was also the Hulk that did the beating years ago. Thor threw her around, but he got knifed pretty quickly. I literally blasted her out of the sky and she was still standing pretty unharmed. You blasted her at point blank and she stood back up with no problems whatsoever and the Captain, well Germany says a lot in how that battle would have gone if Nat or you wouldn't have made it in time."

Steve frowned, a bit peeved. "Ouch."

Clint smiled. "No offense though, if it makes you feel better, if it was me there and I was fighting hand to hand, it might have turned out very differently." He frowned. "In the worst way possible."

Banner grimaced. "You, know, as crude as they are, they have a point. Loki is a very dangerous villain we deal with on a daily basis. She's one of our archenemies, so I feel like we've finally gotten to a point that we can tell when something's off about her." The man frowned. "But right now…. It's…..weird. She has never been this…...this-"

Steve nodded as Banner trailed off silently. He smiled and finished the sentence. "Obscure? Yeah, I agree. I don't think she's ever been this far ahead of us, at least not to the point that we have absolutely no inkling to what she's up to. If I'm really being honest, I don't think we've ever had a good handle on her, today is just one of those days that proves it."

Tony raised a brow. "Uhh, really? Okay, let me stop you right their Cap. Are you sure about that, are any of us? I mean yeah there is the possibility she could be up to something, but for all we know she could just be getting her nails done and we interrupted her light walk to the near nail salon. I mean, from all the baddies we've seen, most of those women tend to have those creepy claw hands." He flexed her hands. "It's definitely a requirement for an exclusive evil _femme-fatale_ club or something. And don't look at me like that, one day I'm going to prove it exist Clint. Either way, maybe she was just pissed we made her late to her appointment. Wouldn't put it past her to be petty like that." He snorted before giving a shudder.

Clint rolled his eyes before looking at Steve. "I want to say something like, I highly doubt that Cap and for once Tony may be right. I know Stark will like that. Because no matter how much she tries we will always be a step ahead and Loki isn't that tough of an opponent. But Loki has and will always be a horrible pain in our ass because she makes you feels like she always has the upper hand. As much as I hate to admit it, Loki is smart and overwhelmingly cunning and manipulative. She can definitely give Nat a run for her money and, _no offense to you Stark_ , Loki's the only person I've seen that's capable of backing up her ego with her, _rightful so_ , self-proclaimed skills. If only because I've seen them first hand."

Tony raised a brow. "One, there is offense thank you. Two I'm guessing this little nugget of knowledge is an insight to the whole brainwash episode of yours."

Clint bit into his apple, ignoring how Banner sent Tony a look of admonish. "You can say that. Somedays, it's clear as day and while I don't want to get that much into it, I can at least say this. If Loki is planning something that she wants to keep very hush-hush, then we got to be on our toes. Despite her track record of random annoyances and half-hearted ideas, when she's actually planning something diabolical, the plan goes and becomes bigger than we expected. Just look at the Manhattan alien Invasion. Loki had planned every step of the way there, and it was- _I hate to say it_ \- genius. The only liability that day was Coulson popping out of nowhere. She didn't expect him, which in turn caused her ultimate defeat when it got our asses together and we actually managed to work as team."

They all scoffed, remembering one year ago today when they finally saw Coulson alive and well. A true survivor and a sight for sore eyes. It still didn't take away from the small guilt they all had for letting such a man die for a few hours because of their unwillingness to work as a team. But having Natasha threaten him to never do it again did help a little bit.

Steve grimaced and rubbed his neck. "Well that's comforting." He turned to Clint. "And I think I speak for everyone here when I say that you don't have to tell us twice about being on our toes with Loki. Especially after today."

"Jeez, thanks for the encouraging speech oh great leader of ours." Tony all bit out, glaring at the man. "

Steve frowned. "I don't like to dwell on my losses. We failed, and for some reason not only did we manage to get away with only a few cuts, our city was actually repaired afterwards by the one who caused it. More than upset about my defeat, I'm worried about the reasonings behind this miracle of a moment. We don't have time to waddle on our failures when there's an obvious problem brewing in front of us."

Bruce sighed heavily as he rubbed his hands. "What do you suppose we do now?"

Clint huffed. "There's not much we can do, we have no leads. Nick's calling Strange right now to see if he can come in and help track her down. I don't know why, because like the few times I said before, I highly doubt that he will. Knowing Loki, she'll probably send him to that underground strip club again and I do not want to hear his and Tony's whining recount of that."

Tony shuddered. "That was a dark day."

Bruce raised a brow. "No one told you to go with him. You _insisted_."

"And I regret it to this day." Tony said throwing the pudding cup away in the trash. Then he paused and turned to the rest of the team. He huffed, an arrogant smirk graced his face as he puffed up his chest and folded his arms in front of his chest. His eyes were eagerly waiting for them to respond back to him.

Clint just sighted and rolled his eyes. "Oh, Jesus Christ with you." Clint clapped his hands together, pressed them to one side of his cheek and tilted his head. Raising his voice as high as he could he batted his lashes. "Oh _Tony_ , might you have something to impart with us oh great idiot."

Ignoring the sarcastic insult, Tony all but smiled and tilted his head up in arrogance. "Well Legolas my friend I thought you'd never ask."

All three men rolled their eyes but kept quiet, lest he starts another tantrum. Steve raised a brow and raised a hand in a motion to give him the room. "Alright, we'll play along. Do you have anything you want to add to this Tony?"

Tony put his hands on hips and just smiled. "Yes, my dear captain, I do indeed so. While I was listening to you all babble over all your fear and worries, I was busy thinking of several things we could actually do to be productive to our cause.

Clint frowned, putting his bow down and crossed his arms. "You were eating a pudding cup."

"Messy mind you." Bruce added signaling to his cheek while handing him a handkerchief.

Tony blinked and then took it, giving the man a look of thanks. "Why thank you Brucie, and to answer birdman's crass exclamation, yes I enjoyed my snack fully which got me thinking of sweets. How we all like sweet things."

Steve sighted. "Tony…. are you going somewhere with this?"

"Hey, hey, just listen. Look, tell me this. How long have we been fighting Loki?"

Bruce tilted his head. "Well…. technically Loki was classified as a danger to earth since Thor fell down to Puerto Antiguo."

"Well, so was Thor at that time." Clint added, that went overall ignored.

Tony nodded. "Exactly. Five years and sure that first year we knew nothing of the bag full of cats until that fateful day when-" He pointed at Clint who sighed but nodded, willing to play along.

"Until she came through the damn portal. Seriously Tony where- "

"Ah-ah-ah. Wait for it." Tony jumped out of his seat, grabbing the bag beside Bruce's chair. He took out his laptop, opened it, and typed away on it. After a few clinks on his keyboard, projections flew up into the space between them. Most noticeably a model of Loki right in the middle. Tony put down the laptop on top of Steve's legs and stepped back, falling back into his chair. He looked back at the men and propped his arms onto his knees. "Okay so the first thing we have to admit, _though I hate to admit it with such a passion_ , is to accept the fact that Steve and Clint are right. No matter how much we try, we won't ever be able to truly know Loki. "

Tony looked at Bruce. "Now you might say, well we have Thor her _'brother_ ', but by now we have all come to the conclusion that he, until just recently, was a very self-centered man. One that tended to over-exaggerate things and fill in gaps he couldn't bother to remember or know with very broad statements that were anything but true because it didn't pertained to him. Even then those things were very much glorified."

"Yeah we know, Thor was an egotistical asshole so what."

" _Soooo_ , because of that, unless their mother- who apparently was the closest to our said archenemy- comes down and tells us everything about her, her habits, likes and dislikes and noticeable habits, we are most definitely screwed when it comes to Loki."

"Once again, thanks for the obvious statement genius." Clint scoffed.

Steve frowned. "Add to the fact that I highly doubt the queen of a warrior planet would willingly come here without at least severe protection from both us and Thor's planet I think that path of information is pretty much a dead end. Earth is still pretty iffy about having Thor, and begrudgingly Loki here, I highly doubt their going to easily accept having 20 guys just like him to satisfy the bigger-big-boy-planet's demands."

Bruce sighted. "Even if Fury and the government were to approve it, I heard that Thor's father forbade her to come down on the basis that she would be far too lenient and forgiving of Loki. Thor has said that she would definitely allow herself to be taken hostage if it meant seeing and spending time with Loki. Her mother's adoration for her daughter is astounding and both him and his father desperately want to avoid testing the waters Queen Frigga would stoop to for her wayward child. Not to mention the fact that aside from what we'd do, I can't really imagine what Thor's planet would do when they find out their queen was taken captive on Earth under our watch. I don't think were ready for that type of war in the slightest."

Tony shuddered but then shook his head. "Okay yeah, all of you are right, but that's not what I'm trying to get at." He smirked. "Since we don't have access to the queen, or their king, _though if he's how Thor described him I highly doubt it'd be worth talking to him anyway,_ and adding to the fact that Thor's friends are just as ignorant of Loki as Thor is, then what?" Tony raised a brow. "How do we find information on someone that's equivalent to our own personal Moby Dick, in order to find some way to finally to take her down?"

Clint shrugged. "What the hell, I'll play along. We track her and try to watch her at all times to pick up anything we can."

Tony nodded. "Exactly, but seeing as we failed at that horribly, since apparently tracking her requires us to trick and outsmart the one and only god of mischief and lies herself-"

"Hey, Nat did it."

" _-And_ since that was only one time and all the rest of us aren't former _de facto_ undercover super spy that specialize in kicking-ass, taking names and manipulating the shit out of everyone and anything, what do we do to get to Loki?"

Bruce, Steve, and Clint looked at each other. Steve closed his eyes and then turned to Tony. He sighted heavily "Uhh…try to b-become her."

The guys all looked at him and he blushed. "Well…y-you know the saying, be your enemy to know your enemy…I-I mean."

Tony tilted his head and then proceed to nod. "Okay, fair enough, but no that's not what I'm talking about. Though-" He looked around. "I bet you anything that I'd rock the wig much better than all of you combined."

Clint glared. "Try me."

Tony scoffed. "Okay all but the super spy that no doubt has already done it and perfected it before."

Bruce smiled and tilted his head. "Well…. since we can't track her, become her, or successfully read her…. ughhh…. Maybe we can try and dig up her past or current doings here on earth." He scratched his head. "Because, no matter who you are or how much they try to hide it, eventually everyone fall back into their habits. We could pick up on that if we managed to get some sort of hints to what they are. I think it might apply to gods as well, from what we've seen."

Tony smirked and gave the man a thumbs up. "Exactly. Or more simply stated, we need to get some dirt on her."

Clint sighted and shook his head. "That sounds good and all, but since we can't even keep up with her how do you suppose we do that? The only thing we've ever gotten on her is minimal and probably all fake considering she _**let us**_ catch and put her in the Helicarrier. Take it from me when I say we literally got zilch. When we caught her again after the war, she was quiet, even when _you_ started instigating her. Not even Nat got through to her, and that's saying a lot."

Tony shrugged. "What? I really thought I could do it and Shawarma seemed like the best route to go with. Too bad she has an ego that maybe overwhelms my own…...which if were speaking truthfully is kind of impressive."

Steve shook his head. "Now you're giving her to much credit. No one could overshadow you on that playing field."

"Should I be insulted or faltered." Steve only smiled as Tony scrutinized him. The brunette shook his head and shrugged. "Ah, I'll take it as a compliment. Thank you my good captain."

Clint raised a brow as he shook his head. "Anyway, as we were saying, so idiot how do you even propose to dig up dirt on someone we have nothing on? You know, not counting the several tapes and videos of her arrogantly handing it to us, playing us, or worse, undermining us. Because I'll tell you this now, I've lived through the fights myself once. I do not want to watch them over and over again just so I can know what color the damn nut-case prefers…which is obviously green by the way."

Tony nodded his head. "Woah, hold on Legolas. I'm not finished just yet. There's no need to ruffle your feathers. "

" _Stark…"_

Tony ignored the growl and continued on, pointing at his diagram. "Look, let's go back to the basics. What do we know about Loki?" He drew a question mark next to the clothed figure. "Nada, except for the most basic things we got from personal insight after our first fight. She hates Thor, his race, our race, and she has daddy issues and the ego to match it. Not only that she's magic, no matter how I object to that." Tony paused rubbing his chin. "Hell, we don't even know her face! Just look at her mugshot!" He pulled up and sure enough even when they had restrained and handcuffed her, her hood had stayed on. No matter if her large helmet was off, the strange hood still covered the entirety of her face. It was a mystery that to this day hadn't been solved by them.

Thor had said that when they were younger, Loki had loved hiding and sneaking on people, so she adopted a very subdued appearance. When she had been old enough to start fighting, she wanted an attire that would suit her way of combat. Seeing at it also coincided with the fact that that their father wanted Loki to be seen as a normal warrior like Thor and not just a fragile princess, her warrior clothing was crafted in such a way that hides her form in all.

Unfortunately, whenever she was in battle, her hood kept flying off. In some of the worst cases, it had been used against her and the royal family had started to worry. So in order to avoid that, she and her mother enchanted it to keep it from falling off until she lets it down by her own volition. Since it wasn't magic per say, and Loki had and would stay muzzled for various safety reasons. Even when she was under the effect of the magical handcuffs, it wouldn't allow anybody or anything to take off her hood without her or her mother's say.

Well, unless they managed to overpower the magic that surrounded the hood that is. Which according to Thor was impossible for them. Once more alluding to Loki's monstrous levels of unssen powers, _which had made some of them scoff at the time seeing as they had just beat her without much problems,_ and his mother's own towering abilities, on their own were near impossible to match by less than a handful of people- _His father, being one of the very lucky few who could_.

When the two woman's magic were put together though, it was so powerful that even Odin would need several magical aides of similar power to combat it, and even more to successfully restrain Loki's full magical abilities.

Which was a roundabout way of basically saying, no way were they going to get a full face picture of Loki unless we'd let her do it herself. Which Thor bluntly said it was never going to happen. At most Loki would play them, escape, or something worse- _ **much worse**_. Half of the team didn't believe that, and after a week of trying many things to take the hood off of her, they were proven horribly wrong and deemed far to conceited to undermine the villain. Not only did it put their own ego to check, it also pushed Loki to be someone they had to be very weary off.

Hence the semi-useless wanted poster of the villain they had in their system.

Fury hadn't been happy, but he wouldn't take the chance of Loki escaping just to get a full bodied picture of the villain.

He settled for a description to at least make a sketch of the woman. Only Thor soon became the worst reliable source after it became apparent that he over-exaggerated everything that pertained to Loki. They went to his friends next for help, only they gave very little to the cause except for a few biting words. Overall they had made the poor sketch artist's life hell for the next few days. Especially when Thor would threaten the poor guy if he even made one mistake or drew her less than what she truly was.

Long story short, it was a disaster and they couldn't even get a sketch drawing of Loki to work with. They settled for a horrible photo of the woman with her coverings on.

The only thing that was good about the situation was the fact that Loki stayed true to her constant look and always had her helmet and hood on. So their wanted poster kind of worked, but it's not like they had much choice in that. They didn't have their mother's consent, Odin refused to give a blessing to get it removed, and everyone knew Loki enjoyed the fact that it annoyed them tremendously. So…. they had make do.

No one liked it of course.

Though he was very adamant the large pool on what she looks like grew every day because of that. Tony was sure that, since Loki had been a very jealous person, of both Thor and every female in Asgard for their beauty and looks, she was not up there in the look department. Hell, Loki was probably hideous so of course she chose to hide her icky face. _'No one that petty can be pretty to look at. Thor's female warrior friend told me she had even cut her hair because she had grown jealous of it and then proceeded to dye it black to put Sif on her level. You know what they say, envy is an ugly monster, maybe they based that off of Loki herself. Green eyed monster, get it?'_

Clint argued that he was over-exaggerating. Stating that Thor never once alluded to her being anything but normal, just different. The two men argued, Tony saying that Thor was her brother so of course he would think of her in good light even after all she done. Even if just going by her looks alone. Clint had scoffed at that and proposed that Loki had just been a very plain kid, hence her large ego to compensate the difference between her and the other gods. ' _The warrior threes and Sif always said that she was the one to always stand out, if only because she was smaller and different then everyone else . That don't mean she's hideous. I don't remember what she looks like but I'm pretty sure she's probably an average Joe miffed because her family, and friends were all good looking folks. After all, it's the normal looking one's that you got to watch out for. They're the ones get very green eyed, not ugly people.'_

Safe to say a bet was made that went and divided S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony seemed to be getting more support from everyone, though that might just be a very large form of pettiness from the disgruntled employees who had fought Loki before. Bruce, to Tony's dismay, sided with Clint. If only to stay out of it all together.

Natasha had just called them stupid and a new category came to light that basically stated that Tony and Clint were probably wrong, are being stupid and their going to get it when Thor finds out. It got a lot of support from the more level headed bunch that basically included Coulson, Maria, Fury, Bruce who defected to it, and even himself.

It got even more backing when Thor heard a rumor about said bet and almost found out that Tony and Clint were behind it. Safe to say it has been kept very under wraps for fear of mutilation by said thunder god that would do anything to protect his sisters honor.

Tony sighted. "We got nothing. That's true, but that's the problem. Every one of our designed methods keep us from getting closer to Loki." Tony looked at his model, letting her mugshot disappear. He moved his hand to the top of it and began writing on it. "The solution to our problem is actually pretty simple once were able to answer this question. All of our plans, all of our methods are used mostly for what?"

Steve frowned. "Catching villains?"

"Catching crazy?" Clint added.

Bruce frowned, looking at what Tony was writing. His face lit up in realization. "Catching humans!"

Tony clapped his hands and pointed at the bespectacled man. "Bingo!"

Clint and Steve blinked, watching as Tony turned the image around and right on top of it had the word God. Steve's brows furrowed. "God…"

"Now don't get your knickers in a bunch American boy wonder, technically speaking she is an alien, but to everyone else in the universe, and let's be honest 4/5 of our world sees them as such. As _gods_. Beings that are infinitely powerful and horribly dangerous to normal joes like us. The fact that we beat one and its army is pretty much incredible if it wasn't for each of our unfortunate circumstances that gave us some sort of power." Tony frowned. "So if we ignored all that, we are still dealing with an extraterrestrial villain that's basically an unknown except for her name and ego. So the question is this, how do we track a god?"

Clint frowned. "Well, it's not like we know where to start. You're right, maybe the way we go about could be the reason on why we can't get a good hold over her. Even then though, Loki is also another category above a god, she's a magician. Thor and his friends can give us some clues to catch an other-worldly being, but even they don't know much when it comes to magic. They could probably track each other, but I heard from robin hood himself that Loki had always been horribly good at keeping to herself and making herself scarce. _That's_ without her using magic. Strange is a magician too, _or sorcerer as he's stated many times_ , and he could track down that magic, but he doesn't know her like us. He's new to this, and is still pretty adamant about keeping to his human roots unfortunately. Even though he could be something much greater."

Bruce nodded. "Thor has tried to study her and predict her movement, and while he can predict her fighting style, having fought with her more times than we ever will, when Loki uses magic, if it isn't tag teaming her or is without his hammer, Thor is very lost and is always blown away."

Tony nodded, writing beside the image of Loki. "Yeah. She's a god, she's magic, intelligent, mischievous, manipulative, strong, and her ego and pride makes her so bold and demanding that she's able to do things we can only dream of doing. Another thing we've all noticed it that over all she's a strategist. Sometimes we get lucky and get a few steps ahead of her, 8 out of 10 times she's playing us and we get caught in our undies in front of national television."

Clint frowned. "The docking bay still gives me hell for that."

Tony nodded. "Your telling me. Pepper shows it to my staff every time I act up. "He shuddered. "That woman."

Bruce smiled. "Well, when the big guy is there, I think there is some reassurance that it will turn out okay. Loki tends to last long, but when it becomes tough, she guns it if she knows she might lose. Until recently, Loki has always been hesitant to fight the big guy. Today was one of the few times Loki confronted me without fright. It wouldn't be surprising to figure out that Loki has been faking that hesitation all this time."

Steve looked at Bruce. "I thought that as well, but I think Loki's genuinely iffy about him. Your right, she might not be terrified of him, but she's always cautious around him. If she can't outright use her magic, she sends you away, or tries to distracts you, compared to how she interacts with the rest of us. She even fights head to head with Thor and his friends, and he can fight head to head with you. Sure, you might not have beaten her senseless, but you did pound her to the ground when she was already exhausted beyond comprehension. She might never admit it, but It had to have affected her more than she's liked. Even Thor is cautious of you, but he knows that you wouldn't purposely attack him like you would Loki, so he's more relaxed with you."

Tony nodded. "Yep, it just adds to the list. She's extremely cautious, and even when she does spontaneous things like today, or that one time in France when she turned the Eiffel tower into a baguette, she does plan for many of her methods. If she gets caught, hell she has plans for that. It took her a week to escape Asgard, and I heard that her cell, while Lavish, was highly enforced. She had a contingence for everything and the most important thing is, that no matter what she does, we never know her reason behind her doings. There's no definite plan. Even during the Chitauri attack, all she said was that she wanted to take over Earth, not why, or how. She just did, thus we couldn't even begin to talk her down from anything."

Clint scoffed. "Not like we ever could. You can't reason with crazy."

Tony nodded. "- _And_ beyond that is something most important. Something I figured out, is a fact that I've yet to take into account. Something so ingenious, that I feel stupid myself for not stating it sooner."

Steve raised a brow. "What?"

Tony smiled. "Well, I think it might be the reason behind why Natasha was able to get under Loki's skin. Why Sif, is able to make Loki angry enough to let her guard down, and why that girl obsessed with Thor is able to get a reaction, when we never can."

Bruce blinked. "And that is?"

Tony smirked. "Aw c'mon, it's so obvious for anyone to see."

Clint frowned. "Get out with it Stark!"

Tony sighted dramatically as he wrote next to the 'god' statement. "You are all killjoys you know. Would kill all of you to play along." He sighted. "Never mind, let's get on with it. Look, it goes back to what I said about Pepper. She's vicious. I can never fully know what she'll do next, and why do you think that is? What is the one thing that makes her so foreigner to me, despite being the same species, the same race and even being around the same age as me?"

Steve blinked. Then his eyes widened and he sighted in defeat. "She's a woman."

Tony wrote out the word and smiled widely "Ding-ding-ding, good job Captain! If I had a prize you'd get it. I don't, so all you get is a pat on the back." Tony did as such, only stopping when Steve gave him a look. The brunet rolled his eyes and signaled to the list. "That's the thing, to us no matter how baggy she dresses and acts and punches like a guy, she's still a woman. Maybe an ugly one, but still so."

Clint rolled his eyes time, but Tony continued. "Which explains why Thor, despite being her brother, ignoring his past self, has never fully understood her. It's also one of the reason why all three of our female companions were able to get to her in a way the rest of us haven't. We could all be just like the three girls, but they will still think differently than us."

Tony sighted. "Sure, were just as smart and resourceful. Some more than other and others not as much. Sif, Blondie and Natasha, are super smart too, but their advantage fall on their female wit. They know how to get under a woman's skin much better than us. Just like we know how to push another guys button to get him to be very erratic in our battles. Add to the fact, that in some aspects they're similar to Loki, it's no wonder they've managed to get closer to her then even Thor could."

Tony smiled pulling up a picture of their female teammate. "Look at Natasha. She's manipulative, deceptive and tricky. One of the reasons she's able to see through Loki's ingenious lies is because she's able to understand them, apply it through a woman's mind set and figure them out."

Tony pulled up another picture, this time of Thor's female friend. "Sif is not only a childhood friend, but a rival for the horned goddess. With a rival, _though they hate to admit it_ , it's not surprising they know each other better then siblings do because they want to beat them. The only reason why she isn't so forth coming is probably because she refuses to allow herself to believe she knows Loki better than she lets on. Power and pride are what make them similar."

Tony wrote each woman's name, writing their shared characteristics over their picture. Then he wrote Amora's name. "Now blondie here, hell-" He wrote Amora's sister name down beside her with her own mugshot. "-Even her sister has a relationship with Loki that could benefit us if they weren't villains themselves. Lorelai is manipulative, a younger sibling and magical to a certain degree. She has a lot in common with Loki and Thor even said that at one point they had been friends. Only now they had a neutral relationship, which was better in comparison to that of her sister and Loki."

Amora's picture was enlarged a bit. "-Who speaking of which, has a rather hateful relationship with our little Loki. One that is dangerous in all forms, but a knowledgeable one nonetheless. She's jealous, she was a companion to her in the magical arts, is just as manipulative, arrogant, and though it's on very different levels of degrees and circumstances, they desire something from Thor. Amora wants his love and attention, Loki wants his death, which only serves to anger Amora more."

Clint shuddered. "She was pretty pissed that one time Loki sent him to the bottom of the ocean. Though Loki barely took it in stride as she only laughed it off while making herself scarce from the scene. Did not enjoy the fact that she had us clean up the mess blondie went and caused in her anger from Loki's doings."

Tony smiled. "See, very similar. Now Amora is a villain as well, so there is no chance she would help us without wanting something in return. She has a lot of information, only it's highly imperative. They hate each other too much. I highly doubt Amora even knows what Loki's favorite food is. Well, maybe she does, if only so she can try to poison her. And _**that's**_ what makes her an asset, Amora can find those things out. She thinks a lot like Loki so she's able to figure out the woman. Remember when she ratted Loki's hideouts and her plans, just because she wanted to be petty?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah and after we dealt with Loki, we found Amora's own hideouts and she was caught unlike the former. Remember how we found her. She was unconscious and her place was trashed. Amora may be like her, but Loki's more devious and powerful. If not there would be two gods of mischief, not one." He shook his head. "Just look at what happened to the blond. Thor said the healers in Asgard not only had to heal her body, but her mind as well since Loki messed her up. She was bedridden for days before she was put into her jail cell. I've heard, she's been avoiding Loki ever since."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, that was pretty nasty so I can't really blame her. But that's the result of knowing your enemy, but having a very hateful relationship with them."

Tony pointed at Clint, stopping him from talking. "Now yes, I know we hate her too, the difference is, we hate her because of her actions and we're the good guys. We fight her on the basis of morality and ethics, Amora hates her because of personal pettiness. Like in your case Legolas, you have more anger towards her because of what she did to you. You would be crueler if the chance arrived, as would Natasha since you're her best friend, and technically so should Thor."

Clint looked at Tony and then he nodded. "You got a point."

Tony looked around the group. "Look the point is, you can have many connections with the person, and they can bring you closer. But if you don't have a basis to it, it becomes kaput." Tony wrote to the other side. "We need to find the perfect connection to her. We need to _create_ a perfect route to Loki." He made a line to a question mark and circled it. "We _need_ someone that won't disregards everything they know about her just because of disdain, and someone that won't ignore or stray away from her. We _need_ someone that won't just think as we _normies_ tend to so."

Bruce rubbed his chin. "Are you suggesting we get a female to try and get closer to her?"

Tony smirked. "Close."

Clint frowned rubbing his head. "If you're saying we need another Loki, then I don't know how I feel like that. One of her is already bad enough, we don't need a doppelganger."

Steve frowned. "Clint's right, beside even if such a person could be on our side, I don't want them to be in harm's way when Loki eventually finds out about the trick. Which I'm very positive she will."

Tony shook his head and sighted dramatically. "Oh you simple minded fools. You're not getting it." He looked at Steve. "Your right, we shouldn't send an innocent person to her. I would never send Maria, Nat, Pepper, Betty, Sharon, Jane or even her quirky assistant to figure this shiz out because that would just be crazy. Heck, I wouldn't even send Sif or Amora's sister in." Tony smirked. "It's a suicide trap for one thing, but if you really want to know why I won't, it's simple. It's because there's still a large gap between all of them and Loki that makes the whole plan kind of kaput. They're missing one special something that's needed to accomplish this task." He wrote something out and circled it. "They don't have a reason to."

Clint linked. "Say what?"

Bruce adjusted his glasses. "Reason?"

Tony nodded. "Yes, a reason. A need, or desire. Sure they want to stop her, but overall they really don't have a necessity or want to get closer to Loki. If anything on principle alone. Nat for sure doesn't, neither does Sif or even Lorelei."

Steve nodded. "That's true, but what's your point."

Tony smirked as he tapped his projection, or the question mark more so. "My point is Rogers, we need someone in this certain position to find out what any of these woman couldn't. Since the only person we know that can fill in this spot is Mama Thor and she's far too loving of Loki to sell her out, we need find another candidate. That way we can finally get the upper hand on her for once."

Tony smirked, especially when Clint tensed. "Just like Steve's pudding attracted me, we need something sweet to get to her. Something with a little honey."

Clint's eyes widened at the horrible implied realization the man was making. He growled "You're not serious!"

Bruce squinted his eyes confused, looking at Clint. He looked at the board and back at each of the man's faces. He groaned, realizing were Tony was going with his crazy ramblings. "Oh god Tony!"

Steve blinked. "What…what is he implying?"

Tony smirked and wrote on top of the question mark form before. "Oh my good captain, what I'm suggestion is ingenious. We need to Honeypot our _not_ -extra-terrestrial friend."

Steve blinked again. "E-excuse me?"

Clint groaned. "You are an _idiot_ Stark! I actually thought you were being serious for a minute there. I legitimately believed you!"

Bruce groaned and turned to Steve. "Steve, A honeypot... well, It's basically someone that goes undercover with the intention to seduce someone to either blackmail, steal, understand them, or kill them off at a very close range."

Steve blinked and then his cheeks turned a bit red. "S-seduce!" He turned to Stark and glared. "Tony!"

Tony smiled and then put his hand to his chest. "What!? I'm being serious guys!"

"You're out of your damn mind is what's going on here!" Clint growled.

Tony sighted. "Look, hear me out. Loki is an unknown variable, and unless Amora wants to give us a clue on her again, which I highly doubt, she'll stay that way unless we take the first few steps. It's been five years since we met Loki and were not any closer to stopping her then when we all met up the first time around. Heck all this time she could have been plotting, playing us, and we might have never known. See." He pulled up some photos that depicted Loki talking with some guys, different people each time. He sighed. "Look I gave this to S.H.I.E.L.D. a while ago, and you've all probably seen these in your spare time. She's plotting something. Today was so important to her she repaired the city and let us go with our lives after _she_ _ **beat**_ _us_. This is getting serious and this might just be me, but I do not want a missile coming at Manhattan again just because we couldn't get a good hand on this when we had the chance."

Bruce sighed. "Tony."

Tony shook his head. "If we do this we could get a definite upper hand on her. We can find out her crazy plan, stop her and be done with her all together. I really think this is a sure way to finally deal with Loki. Not kill her or anything like that, but at least ship her to Asgard once and for all."

Clint rubbed his head and pinched his nose. "Look man, I know where you're coming from, but this plan. It's farfetched. It's crazy!"

Tony scoffed. "So was the Avengers initiative at one point."

Steve frowned. "Only this is near impossible Tony. Even if all precautions were taken as they would for a female member of the team, the same problem arises; we would have to put someone in danger in trying to get closer to her."

Tony nodded. "Yes I know that, that's why I thought it'd be better for us take that reign."

" _ **Hell. No."**_ Clint practically growled.

"Legolas- "

" _No_ , Tony. That's a very definite _**no**_ answer. Not because of want- _because I definitely don't_ \- the fact is it's impossible to do so. Loki knows us, she wouldn't ever let us get close to her, let alone put herself in a situation where she was that defenseless against us. It's a suicide mission that would be for nothing man."

"Not if we _seduce_ her." Tony pouted.

Bruce sighted. "Tony. It's impossible. She would know what we're up to the minute she sees us."

Steve stayed quiet, watching the men argue. He turned to the raven-head. "Tony, it's a good plan, but like you said, how would you know it would even work? We don't even know if she would like us like that or any male in general. She's an _Alien_."

"Haven't you read the stories, she even slept with a horse, man!" Tony growled.

"Thor said that was lie created by a man that was mad at Loki for being outsmarted by a woman. He got put to death by Odin himself for the insult he caused the royal family." Steve said grimly, remembering how Thor told him that little tidbit after he had shown him their myths.

Tony's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

Steve shook his head. "Yeah, we can't believe all that we read. I mean Thor and Sif aren't married, so why would the stuff on Loki be fabricated as well."

Tony frowned and Clint rubbed his head. "Well, there it that _rumor_ that she's been hooking up with Doom."

Bruce grimaced. "I think everyone knows that it's very much a rumor indeed. Especially when Thor found out and almost beat the man to death if only to get the man to admit that it was all a lie. I mean no offense but I even felt bad for Vic. Who wouldn't seeing the over-protectiveness Thor has for Loki."

Clint raised a brow. "Which comes to the biggest problem yet. It's one thing for Loki to find us out but what if _**Thor**_ finds out?"

Tony and Steve flinched. Clint nodded. "Yeah, he might be against Loki when it comes to moralities, but when it comes to stuff outside the battlefield he never fails to bring out that inner big brother bravado to protect her. Even if it is unconsciously at times for him, it's almost an instinct to do so. I'm pretty sure this morning is still fresh in everyone's head. He almost throttled you Stark. Then there was the Doom scenario three months ago, that time he found out about our debt, when Hammer hit on her, and let's not forget when we first met and Brucie called her bag full of cats. He was ready to bash his head in with no hesitation whatsoever."

The group nodded, Brunner clearing his throat anxiously. Clint sighted, an uneasy exhale. "If Thor ever catches wind that someone was trying to seduce his sister. His _**baby**_ sister, who he still adores and loves despite what he says. Oh I can just see it now." He shuddered. "Now that's _before_ he finds out that it was all fake play that might result in her broken heart. I'm positive, _**extremely**_ positive, that it will end horribly for us. We might even lose a part of the avengers and I'm not just talking about Thor leaving the team."

All the men shuddered. Tony swallowed. "I-I didn't think about that." Tony shook his head. "Well what if were to keep it under wraps?"

"Tony, Thor is dense, but not an idiot. How long do you think you could keep this up before he eventually figures it out? I'm pretty positive Loki wouldn't help out on that. If anything she would blackmail us! She'd probably take every opportunity to try to tell point break about it. Either way, every scenario would end up pretty horribly."

Bruce sighted. "Not to mention that there's a major possibility, like Clint say, that it will be turned against us. Thor is one thing, there's also Fury and the public. What if Loki tells them? We could be sent to prison, or hidden away to be forever tortured. Maybe I'm overexaggerating, but I know for sure that the Avengers could get disbanded on that alone. "

Tony groaned. "Ah…don't do that Brucie. It's a good plan, don't tear it down."

Bruce sighted. "I'm being very serious here Tony. Sure it's a good plan, but this isn't a James bond movies. Loki is an alien god and a supervillain. We're the good guys, the model of good behavior…... _sometimes_. But even were not immune to punishment. Something like this is too tricky because we have too much to lose and were aware of the lines we can't cross. If one of us decides to do this, it'll end badly, or even worse for some of the others."

Clint nodded beside the man. "And _you're_ the spokesman for us. Sure you make stupid mistakes, but that's what everyone knows you for and for the most part your forgiven. But if you do this, _which I believe you won't because Pepper will kill you_ , the crowd won't support you this time and you could kill company in a snap. The Avengers can't afford that Stark."

"What if we tell them that it was all ploy. I'm pretty sure everyone will accept that, if only to get rid of one more villain."

"Then Thor will find out and kill you, and no one can stop that. Or Loki will kill you, and everyone you care about if only to satisfy her damaged pride. Which would make us attack her, killing her, and Thor might not be so accepting of that. Either way, fooling around like that is a no-go."

Tony stood still, frowning. The he sighted, the projections leaving them, as he fell back in his chair. "…. you guys just killed an amazing plan."

Clint rolled his eyes. "If it was so, it wouldn't have been so easily killed idiot."

Bruce smiled and put his hand on his shoulder. "Look If it had been anyone else doing your plan, it probably would have turned great. Heck maybe if it had been any other villain we could've probably done it. Just not Loki, were too close to her with Thor involved."

Steve, who had stayed quiet all this time finally nodded. He unfolded his arms and slowly he nodded. "Yeah…. it's to dangerous to even consider."

Tony groaned even louder as he rubbed his head. "Ugh you guys suck."

"Yes, you all do."

Everyone turned to see Natasha walk in. Tony looked at her and raised a brow. "H-how long have you been here?"

Natasha raised a brow. "Are you trying to ask me out of courtesy, or to know if I had overheard your stupid plot to seduce one of our main villain just so we can get a lead on her?"

Tony's eyes lidded. "A while huh?"

"Oh yeah." She crossed her arms. "What I want to know is why you didn't include me? I think I know more about the whole seduction game than anyone here. Heck, I could probably seduce her better than all of you combined."

Steve flinched, Bruce coughed and Clint smirked. Tony just sighted. "You left before I came up with the plan!"

Clint raised a brow. "Though I will agree with you on that Nat. No ass-kissing I promise. "

Tony scoffed. "Of course you would."

Clint ignored him and continued. "As Cap said, maybe Loki bats for the other team. Sure the tales might be wrong about the animals, but they also depicted her seducing many women. Maybe there's some truth to that."

Tony huffed and then crossed his hands. "Well I'll have you know that I got some inside info from a very close source that says she prefers males. Most of those woman names in the myths were actually guys and this very certified source has said Loki was really interested in them."

Nat raised a brow. "It wouldn't be Thor or his band of machismo men would it. Sif is one thing, but the others are prone to spout out very linear thoughts."

Tony went quiet…then he let his hands down. "I hate all of you."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up." She looked around the group. "As much as I want to engage in ripping apart one of Tony's stupid plan myself, I did come here for a purpose. I got sidetracked. Fury wants us to help him track some leads down, and clean up the mess Thor made. Some of the interns have no idea how to handle the equipment, and they could use the muscle. He also wants it done before he or Thor are back in."

Tony scoffed, but he was soon up and walking out the door. "Later turkeys, I know when I'm beat."

Bruce sighted and stood up as well. "I'll go too. If only to make sure he doesn't take it out on a poor unknowing worker."

As he left, Clint was helped up by Nat. He put his bow on his back and rubbed his head. "They're still injured; I'll make sure to keep them from doing something even more stupid."

Nat nodded. "Come to the main deck once you're done. Hill wants to ask you a few things about the surveillance cameras. She might need you to go get the real copies soon enough."

"Gotcha." The man said waving her off as he walked out of the room. Nat turned to see Steve try to get up and she came over to him quickly.

"Hold up, where are you going old man?"

The man tilted his head up with a frown. "I'm not old, and I'm going to help like you said."

"I don't think so. First 96 _does_ count as old and two the doctor said you need more rest before you can even stand up properly, let alone walk. I highly doubt you'll even be capable of lifting heavy intricate equipment when you're already out breath lifting an arm."

Steve groaned. "I'm fine Nat."

Nat raised a brow and flicked his head causing him to fall back. Steve was very slow to respond, and the woman stepped away as he found himself back on his pillow. He frowned and let out a sight, his arms falling to his sides. He huffed as the woman smirked. "Okay…. I get it. Your point's gotten across."

Nat scoffed. "It better have. Tony and the guys woke you up to early. Get some rest. By the time you wake up, no doubt Fury will want you for something else."

Steve groaned. "Can't wait."

Natasha shook her head. She stared at the troubled face Steve tried to miserably hide. "What's on your mind."

"Hn?"

She shook her head. "Don't ' _Hn_ ' me. Something's up, want to talk about it?"

Steve shook her head. "Despite his craziness, I think Tony has a point. Loki is up to something and we need something to get ahead on her. We can't have what happened four years ago happen again." He frowned. "Not on our watch. "

Nat went quiet and then sat on the bed. She smiled and touched his shoulder. " _And_ we will. Tony came up with something crazy, but he does have a small, _very small,_ point. We do have to come up with a plan for crazy-horns and in some ways we already are. Just don't worry too much about it. Were the good guys, we'll stop her. If for some reason we can't, she can sure as hell know that- "

Steve smiled. "-That we'll avenge it."

Natasha smiled, which quickly turned into a smirk. "Now you're getting your own words. You need to relax, want me to call Sharon and have her play nurse."

Steve sighted. "Nat…"

She smiled and stood up. "Hey, it's your loss. You really need a girlfriend though. You're getting to stressed, need to work that out. It'd be better than hitting the gym~."

Steve shook his head, cheeks reddening. "Alright already, go!"

Natasha scoffed. "It's too easy sometimes. Rest up Steve, quit worrying too much."

With those words, she left the room and Steve was left on his own once again. He sighted, feeling the numbing in his body still. He fell back comfortably to his side and relaxed. He felt the movement on top of his legs and remembered that Tony's computer was still on his lap. After a moment hesitation, he pulled it to him and opened it up. The screen switched on, though the projection form before didn't pop up. On the screen were the previous writing and image from before.

He read it again and again, until he was pretty sure he could remember it from memory alone. He closed the laptop, put it to the side and closed his eyes as he leaned back. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, remembering everything that had just been said. He sighted. "It's a very bad…bad idea."

If only his head could agree with him and let him fall sleep in assurance. He sighted.

"Damn it…"

He really was starting to hate Loki.


	3. Trouble

**I am back, and still keeping up with the weekly uploads. WHOOO!**

 **It's almost been a month and I hope you guys are still following along with my all my weird writing and horrible mistakes. Once again I thank my awesome Beta Krystal Lazuli.**

 **It's getting to be the calm before the storm now.**

 **I can tell you now, that the story is _really_ going to start picking up now.**

 **Disclaimer, I own nothing from Disney and Marvel except all my weird ass fantasies.**

* * *

"Have you all heard of the Latvia Hotel?" Fury asked as towards the oval table where the Avengers sat.

Tony, raised a brow biting into his snack alongside Clint and Thor. "You're joking, right?"

The man huffed. "Does it look like I am?"

"No, but who can tell with you. Maybe if you'd be more open with us, these things might be avoided." Tony smirked, enjoying the glare he got from the eye-patch-wearing man.

Thor, ignoring the animosity between them, only looked at the man in confusion. "I for one do not know of this ' _hotel'_. Is this like the Brooklyn you speak so much of Captain?"

Steve smiled and shook his head. "No Thor. Brooklyn's a borough or a large area that makes up a part of New York. A hotel's a building that serves as a temporary lodge away from home."

The blond man nodded and _'oohed'_. He looked back at Fury. "I see, a lodge. So this hotel of Latvia, why is it of such importance to us?"

Fury opened his mouth to respond, only Tony was quicker. "I got this cupcake. Look Point break, you remember our hated pal Doom, right?" Thor nodded grimly and Tony smiled. "Well, long story short, Latvia is something _**he**_ created to show-off all his power while it annoyed the hell out of us. Technically speaking, the guy should've been arrested the minute he set foot on American soil." Tony bit into his candy bar. "Only the asshole abused his money, power and _'intelligence'_ , haggled with _a lot_ of shady third parties, got a deal struck, and somehow created a hotel that gave him and anyone he wishes, diplomatic and legal immunity." He swallowed his food and took a sip of his water. "Long story short, Latvia's the pinnacle of idiotic tragedy that has graced our nation since the whole Watergate fiasco. Doom literally served us our asses, and when we finally had enough sense to catch on to his trick it was too late. Now we, _the people and our government_ , are stuck in this irreversible jargon housing a friendly, neighborhood, super-villain hub in downtown Manhattan that refuses to validate parking tickets. Now here comes the good part-"

Fury growled. " _ **Stark."**_

Tony raised a hand to wave him off. "Up-up-up, the guy deserves to know. Now where was I, oh yeah! Now if we _ever_ try to back out of this deal, those several third parties I told you about-" Thor nodded "-well they'll start to take back all that oil, knowledge, money they've been giving our country graciously. Once that happens were going to suffer so freaking bad both economically and reputation wise, _**worldwide**_. Basically...Doom was a prick, we got the short end of the stick and Latvia was born... yeah that's about it."

Thor's brows furrowed. "So this place, it's a safe haven for criminals?"

Clint nodded. "Just about big guy. If you just walk around the hotel perimeters, you'll find several, _and I mean several,_ government agencies staking it out. Since its opening, there's been an assortment of villains, criminals, rogues, drug and weapon smugglers and all sorts of baddies spotted there several times. Doom, being the asshole that he is, extends his protection to his most esteemed of guests. Magneto and Mystique, Osborn, Kingpin, Doc Ock, The Mandarin, Killian, Sabretooth, Taskmaster, Baron, Bullseye, Justin Hammer, Kraven the hunter, heck even Asgardians and other aliens, like Lorelei and Amora, have been spotted there. And as long as they're on that private property and Doom extends his diplomatic protection, we can't do shit about it. The minute we do, _we_ become the villains and I wouldn't be surprise if the government tries to snuff us out to keep it quiet. _That's_ how important this deal is to our country and allies."

Thor frowned. "That is troubling indeed." He looked at Fury. "Do you mean to tell us we will mount an attack on that place. If it is, let it be said now that you will have Asgard at your beck and call. Me, Sif and the warrior three are ready for battle."

The table shared a small smile as the blond man gallantly stood to show his support, despite the fact that he had food crumbs all over him. Fury shook his head. "As much as I wish that was the reason why we're having this impromptu meeting, It's not. As of now, we're still unable to do anything without it coming back and biting our ass. For now, we'll have to play along with the shaky rules and bear it." Fury sighted, staring at Thor intently as he sat down. When the man noticed it he stared back in curiosity. Nick pinched his nose and looked away, confusing the table. Maria hill took this opportunity to walk to his side and smiled.

"That being said, there are some things that have been brought to our attention. Unfortunately for us, it's only more bad news." Maria looked at Thor. "Things that require _you_ to be patient Thor."

The blond man paused, putting his drink back on table without taking a sip. He frowned but eventually nodded. "If that is what you need from me, then I will do my best to oblige. If I may ask, what has brought upon this boon."

Maria didn't answer, starting up the projection monitor on the table. She went through a file, opening up several pictures of the hotel until she pulled up one that showed a construction company and its remodeling team beside said place."

Tony frowned seating up. "Woah, what's that?"

Maria frowned. " _That_ is the first stage of the public square Doom has started construction on. Apparently the city has had a dire case of money problems our government won't solve. Problems, Doom was willing to ease if they gave him a large plot of land for his people to mingle around in. Of course, when the proposal was made there was an immediate backlash and the construction was halted. Their opposition impeded progress so much, that Doom eventually caved in and stated that the place would be open to the public, without indiscretion, if the city granted him the right to build."

Clint frowned, putting his sandwich down. "Uhh…. uh-oh?"

Fury frowned. " _Uh-oh_ indeed. While making it public sounds like a decent idea at first, seeing all the advantages to us, considering _**who**_ the hotel caters to makes it a huge liability for innocents to get hurt. No one, and I mean _no one_ in their right mind would willingly go to such a place, so it sounds like it shouldn't even be considered a problem for the city to just throw the stupid idea away. Unfortunately for us, everyone in New York is a fucking moron." A new image appeared of what looked to be a large cook out party.

Something that was pretty normal looking for Downtown New York. If only Doom hadn't been on a podium talking to the partygoers.

The dark-skinned man glared. "To celebrate his new open door policy for his lavish home, he even started a block party that succeeded in enticing our New York citizens to support the build for it. He managed to score some goddamn brownie points, especially when nothing happened the entire week he organized the stupid thing. There wasn't even a fucking parking ticket around the area that we could pin him down with. His word was, that it would be a hostile free zone and it would serve to be a free entertainment zone for everyone who wished to mingle."

Banner frowned. "Are you saying that he's luring favor with our council and government so he can have some free clubbing space?"

Tony whistled before giving a short laugh. "Okay now I know your joking. FYI, this isn't funny and you gotta work on your material!"

Fury sighted. "I'm _not_ and zip it Stark. Now when we first encountered this, we just assumed he was planning to fortify his tower into a lavish bunker and weapons-trade hub. Despite the danger it posed, we were content with that. Mainly because it would finally be the lead we'd need to end that idiotic truce, _on the grounds that Doom was violating its strict guidelines_ , once and for all. The turn _this_ took though was unforeseen and as you can tell, very far from anything the man had ever, and I mean _ever_ , done before."

Natasha crossed her arms. "So how are we going to do this. I'm sure the first deal is still fresh on everybody's mind and not in a good way. There's no way this going to be so easily accepted right?"

Fury groaned, rubbing his chin. "You'd be surprised"

Steve's eyes widened. "You can't be serious? Latvia already puts millions in danger on potential alone. If this thing actually happens, _**it**_ would basically let every horrible mind in that place free access to take hostages whenever they want."

Fury nodded, a scowl on his face. "I know captain and don't think for one second I _ever_ agreed to this. Hill will tell you, I was very vocally against it throughout the whole ordeal." Maria nodded beside him as she switched pictures to show Doom, in masked glory signing said deal. "Our branches of government and the New York offices think otherwise."

Bruce took off his glasses and started cleaning them. "-And what gives them that vote of confidence on an astute supervillain like Doom. They do know he's tried to destroy America over 25 times in this year alone? Right?"

"They do. Though it fails to tip the scales our favor. Like I said this deal has many advantages that out weight the cons." He walked along the table back and forth. "Don't get me wrong, after hours and days of negotiations, the governor and mayor of New York, despite their towering debt, have realized they couldn't afford to have their citizens in blatant peril with this agreement. So, we can at least say they aren't completely stupid. On the other hand, they do want to agree with Doom's deal, especially if he accepted the negotiating terms of consequential actions. "

"Consequential actions?"

Fury hummed. "Yes, one of them being that, if he were to get the space, yes Doom's guest will still have their immunity while they mingled in the small hub. But the minute they harm, endanger or be in any way responsible for hurting any of our citizens or guests of the hotel, that immunity will be immediately taken away and they'd be arrested. Unfortunately, the same goes the other way. If one of Doom's guest is attacked or feels threatened on the property, the person will be banned and even legal action will be taken against them."

Natasha frowned, and then her eyes widened. "Wait, for Doom to have that type of rule means?"

Fury nodded. "Yeah, exactly that Romanoff. Your catching on." He looked at all the others. "His rule of indiscretion means even our men and any other agents will have the power to get closer to the premise as US citizens. We'll be protected just like any other citizen, and in case of any violations, we'll be there to apprehend the wrong party quickly. Also, since Doom is being stupidly amicable and allowing some of the public into the hotel when there's a celebration, _which is still heavily protected in the treaty unfortunately_ , it means that we have a chance to let our agents into the den of some of our most dangerous foes."

Steve's eyes furrowed. "That explains why our guys were so willing to meet Doom's demands despite it being crazy to do so."

Nick rubbed his head and sighed. "Yes, I won't deny that the agreements offer a lot of opportunities for us, but it's a tough pill to swallow."

Maria nodded alongside him. "While that alone causes a lot of problems, both morally and lawfully, there is one thing that worries us the most."

"What? That we won't be invited to the party…...because that's actually a very probable turn of events." Tony sarcastically said biting into a cookie.

"While that is something to take into account, it's not why we're concerned." Maria opened up a file of an almost complete building covered by wraps and construction tape. "The square's actually been in construction for the past few months, and the only reason we haven't told you is only for the sole fact that there was really nothing we could do to stop it. At least not in the way any of you could."

The table looked around each other and begrudgingly accepted it as a fact as they all shrugged in understanding. Maria went on. "We were going to mention it after we had a concrete plan on how to go about this, but we've recently come across some information that's put a large halt in our plan. Since the deal was brokered, there was a quick window of time where the hotel had accidently let us access into its databases. It was a quick moment, but we were able to get some info on many of his guest, foundation, investors, and sponsors. Many of whom we've already been suspecting of being fake."

Clint raised a brow. "Enough to end the stupid deal with dignity?"

"Nope." Maria added with a pop of her lips. "Even though we know that these names are fake and are likely aliases for every criminal in there, everything still abides to all the terms that were required of the deal. All the guidelines are still being followed. Doom isn't breaking any laws as far as we can see and tell. They are all definitely fake Swiss accounts, but as long as their untraceable to their host, by law they could belong to anybody or anything."

Fury frowned. "There is no damn doubt that all these ' _sponsors and donators and investors'_ accounts all belong to every villain in league with Doom. Unfortunately, we can't prove that…at least not now. So we can't charge Doom for breaking the treaty since technically speaking his financial gains and profits aren't illegal to say the least _._ "

Clint folded his arms. "So your saying we're going to be stuck in this shitty situation until Doom fucks up?"

Maria frowned nodding. "Yeah. She ignored how Clint scoffed and looked away as she pulled up several files that listed an assortment of fake names and organizations, up on the screen.

Tony paused and pointed at one. "Hey that name, Makarov and the company, Hamid. that's definitely connected to Hammer. Looked it up myself after he almost went and tried to take me out. Even that company sucks, just letting you all know."

"Yes, all of these are just some of the many aliases we managed to find in our search. Every criminal we've ever faced has been connected to Doom and the hotel through these names."

Natasha got up and looked at the screen. "Magneto, Killian, Kingpin, another Kingpin, Baron, Yellow-jacket…." She paused. "Your right. Every villain is almost here."

Maria scrolled through the list. "There are some loose ends but for now we've taken into account everyone we could. Only, our current problem doesn't fall on that though." she looked at the team. "Recently, alongside the Doom expansion, there has been an increase in grunt activity across town. There have been several group expansions in several different towns that share many similarities to the ones stationed here in New York City."

"And when you say grunt activity?" Banner asked.

"I mean exactly that. Low level thugs in employment of someone else. Whether their drug distributor, scammers and or common thieves, all of them have been mysteriously more organized then before. Like some sort of organization has been implanted in them recently, at least going by our reports. If you're asking why we've kept tabs on them, well some of them have been linked back to figures like Kingpin or Taskmaster. So when we noticed a switch up of their routine, we took action. It just so happened that one of our agent's had been able to charge one on a misdemeanor, and after light interrogation we managed to verify one key detail. That we were right in our assumptions, that almost all of them have come under new employment."

Steve frowned. "That's weird...?"

Natasha looked at Steve "It _**is**_ weird. Having grunts escape a leadership under a big villain fish like that is unheard of, unless it's in a body bag. Did they go willingly? Because I'm pretty positive Kingpin and all other villains are still alive and kicking and they wouldn't let their grunts go so easily. At least not to the competition."

Fury nodded. " We asked that ourselves Romanoff. Unfortunately, our detainee was loyal and didn't want to reveal who his boss was. He did mention though that his previous employers had willingly let them go as part of a money deal and weapons exchange with their new honcho. Of course, afterwards, _as all villain do_ , they had tried to betray the new guy, but were put in their place. Now this unknown variable has near control of the streets. From California, to New York, and even overseas in places at Bangkok and Russia. I can't deny when we say we've caught whiff of a strange new organization appearing a little while ago. We just didn't know it was all connected and based here and the growth that it was taking. After getting all we could from the guy, we followed all the traces we could get form him and we were able to connect them all to one source." A screen pulled up with only one letter. "I."

Tony raised a brow. "Uhh…. that's a letter."

"Yeah, the lowlife managed to burn a good majority of the discriminating evidence away before we could get to it. Even when we offered him a plea deal and threatened him with a false sentence, he wouldn't crack on anything pertaining to his job. They've been taught to stay silent by someone. Someone who's name apparently starts with _I._ We tried to get another grunt captured, but they've became careful. Their mouths are tighter then a Ziploc bag."

Banner sighted, putting his glasses on. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but what does this have to do with the hotel and Doom's new plans."

Maria crossed her arms, leaning on the table. "Well, when we were investigating this mysterious ' _I'_ , we came to a realization that if he's a villain, and he's in contact with people like Kingpin and Taskmaster, then there is no doubt Doom has at least heard of him and might have made contact."

Clint's face showed signs of understanding. "So, of course that would mean that there's a possibility that he could be in the Latvia hotel's databases?"

Natasha smiled. "The database full of villain aliases you managed to acquire right before their system managed to shut you out."

Steve smiled. "Well, did he make contact?"

Clint scoffed beside him. "Of course he did Cap. Doom always wants his grubby hands into anything new and shiny he can control. Whether it be through his money, influence or his power. If not, he at least wants to be in the loop on everything around him. It would be more surprising to find out that there's a new person making a mark in the villain community, and he _**doesn't**_ care. This definitely going to ring some sort of bells for him."

"Besides, I might hate the guy, but I think anyone that's a baddie knows that to have contacts with Doom's influence, and his stupid hotel, is now a must have for any so called villain." Tony paused "Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that what I just said sounded so much like our normal society? Anybody?"

Steve shook his head at Stark and looked over at Fury. "So, I'm assuming you've already started looking through the aliases? Have we found any suspects?"

Maria and Fury looked at each other with a tight look that caused Steve to blink. "What's wrong?"

Maria sighed, closing her eyes. "We ran through every name starting with an I, and quickly eliminated the aliases that matched with villains we know have no connections. When we had a name we couldn't rule out, we investigated it to see if the villain that matched it, had been up to anything new and so far none have pinged. At least the ones that we know for sure matched their names and the visits to the hotel."

Fury grunted. "Then we came upon one name that none of us noticed before. Mostly because it could have been a dud in the system that Doom rigged up to throw intruders off.. After days of being analyzed, we figured out that this name has been in their files for a long time. Not only in _**our**_ systems, but in Doom's as well. Ever since the hotel came to be apparently."

This time Clint and Natasha looked at each other. Then Clint looked at Fury with a frown. "The hotel was created almost four to five years ago. Doom was powerful, but he was still rising back then. His group was small and limited, and he was actually very picky to who he brought into his circle. Not many could call themselves a founder of that place unless Doom approved it and found the person worthy of it."

Maria continued. "Yeah, but the founders that we _know_ of have already been taken off the list. Their aliases didn't start with an I and none of them have any traces to any of the stated suspicious doings. At least not anymore."

Thor, who had been frowning all this time sighted. "I do not understand. So this name you've come across is a founder, but _not_ a founder. How is that possible? What is this madness?"

Natasha smiled. "No Thor, what he means is that while this person is or might be a founder, we still don't have enough information to know who it is. As far as we know now, there might be an unknown founder we never knew off until today." She turned to Fury. "Right?"

Fury. "Yes, at least until a few hours actually." Fury walked closer to the table, his eyes on the list. "That's when our databases finally finished their 110th scan on this alias. It turned nothing up as we had expected, and since it matched nada we assumed it had been a dud as we had first though. Everything was clean and we were just about to dump it until we noticed the dates that name _became 'active'_."

"Active?" Steve frowned.

"It has periodically been off and on, but it never has had much activity in wither programs. It was the reason why we suspected it was nothing but a fake out. But while it was random, it has been active when Doom happened to make some sort of big plan. It has also been increasingly active since Doom's plan for the hotel's enlargement occurred. In fact, the very first day it came to our knowledge that something was going to happen with Doom, it dinged and so far it's been a part of the coded roster since. A hidden roster." Fury frowned. "An impossible feat knowing who's databases we're dealing with."

Maria shook her head. "Ever since then, we've been keeping an eye on it, and while I was going through it today, I finally discovered why this alias always irritated me so much. I literally wanted to slap myself after figuring it out." She rubbed her head. "I have to admit though, even now it makes little sense why it would be that person in the first place."

The Avengers looked around at each other and shrugged confusedly. Tony twirled his hand. "Uhh, want to loop us into this Hill?"

Maria frowned, skimming through the files. One file popped up and came to light in broad letters. "Here it is. The complete name on our mysterious guy."

Clint frowned. " _Ik ol Ritt od yefual_ , _wooow_ …. that is some name? What is that, Russian?"

Natasha glared. "That's insulting-" She frowned. "-and not something I've ever heard before."

Tony frowned. "I'll let Jarvis run it through the database to see if he can find some type of origin for it and see what the name could be. Then we can start- "

Maria shook her head. "There's no need for that."

Tony paused, a bit put-off, while Steve frowned. "You've found out what it is?"

Maria shook her head. "Yes, and I eve discovered who the villain the alias was for. It was literally staring back at me right in front of my face." She looked at Steve. "-and funny enough it was thanks to you and Stark that it came to be. While you were resting up, he kept nagging at me about what had occurred during your battle today. Of course, most of it was about him complaining over you taking the spotlight, until he did eventually get to the part about your meet up with our oh said archenemy."

Steve frowned, and Maria just continued. "It was in my haste to walk away from said annoying iron-idiot- "

"Hey, I feel very attacked right now!" Stark pouted.

"-That I accidently pressed a certain key while I was trying to get up. After pushing him out the door, I noticed that I had reversed my documents. Or more importantly your report on what had happen." She wrote a name on the projection. "Steve, became Evets, and so on. _**Till**_ …...I got to a certain word that in the report that matched what I was looking for perfectly. It was just a matter of getting rid of the spaces." She said with a bite.

Banner frowned, staring at the reversal. Then he looked at Steve and rubbed his chin. "I still don't see wha-" His eyes widened and he paused. He grabbed a piece of paper and pen and wrote something down on it with a hurried pace. Then he flipped the paper held it up to the light and his mouth gaped a bit. He blinked and looked at Maria. " _Ik ol…"_

Maria pressed another button. "It seems you've got it doc. Yes, when we first ran the name through all databases, it didn't pick up anything whatsoever because that was the wrong way to look for it. It wasn't a word grammatically correct to any of our dictionaries, so of course it wouldn't have any origins. At least spelled that way." Maria smiled. "Or in that direction."

Natasha glared. "I-K-O-L"

"Yes, _Ik ol_." Maria smiled. "But reversed and with no spaces." She pressed a button and the letters started reforming.

Clint frowned while Steve's eyes widened. Clint's all but growled when the final product was shown. "L-O-K-I. Loki!"

Maria smiled as she pushed a button and Steve's report popped up. A word highlighted and enhanced. "Just like in your reversed statement."

Thor tensed and he put down his glass with force. "What!?"

The name finished respelling and soon the only name on there was as they had stated. Maria frowned. "Loki Laufeydottir."

The team tensed, Thor all but frozen in his seat, as Fury turned to them. "Yeah, the mystery name turned out to be Loki. Despite reports of _**never**_ having spotted her near the hotel since it's construction, the alias has led us to believe she's been a constant regular at the establishment. Not only that, after finding out our recent discovery, we were able to track her alias _Ik ol_ through numerous back channels. Most of which could be linked to this newly established organized crime ring."

Thor frowned, his face scrunching in anger. "Are you saying that Loki has been expanding her influence all this time without our knowing."

Maria nodded, aware of his icy tone. "It's a big possibility. It's no secret that the minute Loki came back to Earth many villains reached out to her. At times she has accepted temporary truces with them, Doom included. It wasn't expected, but it's also not really surprising that she'd be a founder of the place. Though it does raises some question of Loki's past transgressions. From what little we've gathered, nothing would have inclined to her to willingly get into a pact like that with Doom. Some sources have even said she had rejected his idea the first time it was even offered, which follows her style even better."

Thor nodded. "It would indeed my friend. Loki does not trust easily. Not when we were children, and even less now that we're on opposite sides. In these battle we've fought against her, I've noticed that she very rarely turns her back to her villainous alias. No matter her allegiance, she wouldn't be in a partnership unless she trusted the ally or was confident in her deceit of said ally. The man of Doom is none of that. "

Tony crossed his arms. "Blondie's right. Loki is well known not to play well with others. Unfortunately Doom himself is also known not to give up on something he wants. He wouldn't give up, even if Loki refused his partnership. Not with the type of power and influence Loki has." Tony looked at the projections with a frown. "So maybe, on the off chance he actually got her to cave in, he probably created the account in his systems for her. It's probably been so long since then, coupled with her constant refusals, it's likely he just forgot about it and the account had been in Limbo since then. Loki, always the person one step ahead, probably found out about it during her plan-making, stole it, hid it, modified it so no one would know of it and has probably been using it to her own liking with the added touch of not having to answer to Doom for it." Tony shrugged. "Not bad for a bag full of cats."

Clint growled. "With her magic anything's possible. As far as he knows, Loki is still unassociated with the hotel, has no desire to join, and is in no way responsible for anything that occurs in his abode." The man smirked. "Which works well for Loki in the end."

Natasha nodded. "It would also explain why people like Kingpin and Taskmaster gave in so easily to this newcomer. Many villains joke around over Loki being just another grunt that almost always listen willingly to other top villains only- "

"They what!?" Thor growled from his seat. Natasha smiled, but ignored him.

"-But when it comes down to it, we and all the other baddies on top know well that Loki is not to be messed with. So when they tried to betray her, I think Loki got the upper hand and they decided it wasn't worth it. They kept quiet, if anything to preserve their pride."

Banner frowned getting up and scrolling through the hologram documents. Maria handed him another tablet and he frowned walking to his seat. "Just looking at this report can tell you that she's fully exploiting the influence. She's deeply ingrained in various things pertaining to some pretty old villainous plans and some of the hotel functions themselves." He looked up. "Guys…. I think we've just come across a whole trail that connects Loki to things we didn't even know she was a part off. Did you know that she was the one that got Kingpin out of the drug bust five months ago? "

"The one that lawyer guy was able to track down and actually managed to get it pass by the legal courts?" Tony questioned.

Banner nodded. "Yeah, we managed to recover some back channel feed that stated that Ikol was able to make contact with Pin at Harvey. Harvey, or better yet Harvey's hardware company, the place next door to where the bust went down."

Fury frowned. "And there's more where that comes from." He pushed a button on the table and all the documents scattered until one came to light. "The one that worries us the most though is the last thing _'Ik ol'_ had a hand in. One that took place earlier today and had to do with our current headache of a problem."

Tony frowned. "Let me guess…. it had something to do with Doom's idiotic expansion didn't it?"

Fury nodded and sighed. "The final meeting and negotiations for both sides took place an hour after your big fight."

Steve glared and tightened his hands. "Where? "

"Almost three miles from where you all were. It was delayed because of the fight, but since it ended so abruptly and there was no damage or hazardous activity afterwards, it proceed as planned." He nodded and Maria pushed a button, pulling up a video feed of many men in suit or, common clothes walking into a building. "Not only that, but according to our scouts in the area, a meeting planned within the new crime ring also proceeded as scheduled around the same place. A meeting that included their boss about future business."

Natasha frowned. "Were we able to get the drop on them?"

Maria shook her head as the video proceeded. "No, when we sent the signal for our team to move in -" The video played on as the head of the armed agents gave the signal for the raid to commence. When they busted in to the area where the men had previously entered, they were surprised to find the place was empty. The avengers looked at each other, frowning at the events. As the man ordered for the place to be searched, Maria closed it. "Even after searching the entire area, they weren't able to find anything, even with thermal rays and the hounds. It was like they _poofed_ out of existence. This kind of thing can only be possible with the use of magic."

Tony shivered. "Ugggh…. that word still makes my skin crawl."

Steve sighed. He looked a Fury "That last meeting, was it important?"

"It was the last time anyone had any say to deflect the whole thing all together. Our lawyers and even Hill and I were there. I put up the defense spell Thor had given us to dispel any sort of magic mambo jumbo, seeing we were dealing with Doom, and I'm positive in saying that she at least wasn't there herself. She might have been at the meeting with those grunts, but we can't be sure. Maria and I believe that the whole grunt meeting was a sham to get closer to the project meeting and eavesdrop."

Steve frowned. "Which would explain why she let us go, cleaned everything up, and left in such a hurry. She wanted to be there in case something happened that required her to step in to fix or prevent."

Clint stood up, rubbing his head. " _I don't like it_. Loki's putting a lot of work and interest into something that sounds overall annoying, but harmless. It can't just be coincidence nor a trick on her part to annoy us. Hell she hasn't even bragged about it, which is basic villain 101."

Thor only gripped his hands tighter, his eyes glued to the table in a silent anger. Steve looked at the blond man, and frowned. Then he turned to Banner who let the tablet fall to the table with a small thud. "I know this sounds bad, all of it, but it still doesn't answer the main question. _Why?_ Why is she doing all of this? What could she possibly gain from this? Loki, she's pretty narrow minded in her goals. She wants what any egomaniacal-narcissistic-power hungry-stuck up-exiled royal god wants. She wants infamy, coupled with full totalitarian power and to be showered with fear and reverence from everyone around her. Since Thor has most of that, at the moment she wants to take him out and get out of his shadow." Banner chose to ignore how Thor winced at his words and kept on. "But, this…this is just out of bounds for her. Statistically speaking, this should have never been on her plate to begin with."

Natasha frowned as she scrolled through the files. "Building and getting a town square approved for someone else's gain, managing and protecting low level thugs that at most could only help her in weapon smuggling. There is no way that this could be called Loki A-class material. Probably why we never thought to include her in the pool of suspects. After all, this is a big downgrade from any of her exploding, city-decimating, full of armies of aliens and robots, with unlimited magic, type plans. This is more on the lines of mob plans that fit Kingpin, Osborn, or anyone else that isn't an evil, magical, ex-Viking warrior princess god-alien of one of the most powerful races to date. "

Fury frowned. "Exactly my point. All of this shit, it makes no lick of fucking sense!"

Steve nodded. "Agreed. At the same time, it doesn't feel like all the other time Loki has tried to pull our leg. Back then you could plainly tell she was scheming something, what with her constant jabs and gloating. As far as conversations go, this was the first time she alluded to something that's been going on for months. What's worse is that fact that she was confident in the fact that we haven't caught on yet until she let it out herself. So her actions, her motivation at the time, they were probably real…...or as real as they could be knowing her."

Tony frowned. "Woah, hold up there Capsicle, don't forget that Loki is the god of lies for a reason. I know all the evidence points to this elaborate ploy, but all of this just sounds weird and completely way-off. _Even for Loki_. It's like Christmas in July, or pancakes with cream cheese, it's wrong and just plain ughhh…" Tony frowned. "Who knows, for all we know, maybe Loki, _and I can't believe I'm going to say this_ , but maybe she's just being used in this. Now don't look at me that way, listen. This is not Loki 101 and no offense, but's it's not unheard off for a villain to blame another just so they can get away with a crime. Loki probably caught on to the account as I said, and was probably just using Doom to do petty things like scoring a place to stay or something. But maybe, _**just maybe,**_ someone else caught on to her doings and was all _'oh look at that, the perfect dud to pin all of the blame on so I can get away with it'_ and here we are _._ I mean, no one would suspect her, and anyone with a brain wouldn't be stupid enough to confront her about it. Maybe just like Legolas stated, all of this is one hell of fucking coincidence and Loki was just a victim. Mind you I'm not, _for fuck's sake no_ , not trying to protect her in any way possible. I'm just stating the facts."

Natasha frowned. "That makes less sense then what we originally though Stark. Your literally throwing shit out there now."

Tony frowned. "Hey, I'm just saying! Tell me that you don't feel better believing that."

Clint glared. "No it doesn't. That means that someone out there is not only scheming up something big, but they actually managed to hide behind one of the largest fish in this sea of villains while we know nothing about him/her."

Banner sighted. "Adding to the fact that if Loki herself hasn't been able to figure it out, it'd make the mastermind behind all this that much dangerous. Which is ten times worse if we're being honest."

Tony sighted. "Your right…...regardless of both suggestions, were screwed." He gripped his head. "Dammit I'm getting a headache; I need a fucking drink."

Maria sighted. "Tony's right about that, the first part at least and maybe the second. This is pain inducing to think of because this whole thing confusing. It's also being orchestrated by a villain that has never had very solid motives in her actions anyways."

At that Thor stood up. He lifted up his hand and soon Mjolnir was in his hands, ignoring the hole in the wall it created in the long run. Fury frowned and turned to the man. "Thor."

The blond frowned. "I will go and find my sister and force her tongue on the subject."

Fury glared and he crossed his arms. "I had hoped that you would remember your promise of patience. "

"I promisedI'd _try_. But seeing as Loki is involved deep in this, I cannot turn a blind eye any longer. I will go to this hotel and inquire questions of this. If she is guilty, then we will settle it wherever I find her, there and now. As a son of Odin I will not allow an invasion of the previous magnitude to happen ever again." He turned to walk away and Steve was already up and in front of him. Thor frowned. "My friend, I ask you to move."

Steve kept his stance and raised an arm. "Thor. You can't. As of now, even if she was there, that place is heavily protected. I know what this means to you, I know you feel responsible, but you can't go about it like this. This is personal for all of us. We've faced many foes, But Loki is still our first and most formidable one as a team. I speak for all of us when I say we all want to go to that hotel, rat her out and find a way to put these worries to rest, but we _can't_. If we do, more people will suffer by having us break the rules."

Thor frowned and gripped his hammer. "She is _**my**_ sister. Out of anybody, I _will_ find a way to get through to her. _Trust me_."

Natasha came to Steve's side. "We don't doubt that Thor. When the going gets tough, you do get results, even from someone like her. We just have to do it in a way that no one but the ones causing trouble are being affected. That deal of Doom's keeps oil and many other necessities our country needs flowing. If we break that truce, Doom will make them stop that and our country would be in dire need resources. Not only that, those types of guys don't go down so easily. They will hurt whoever they can if only to escape capture. Hundreds could be at risk. Thor please try think about this."

Thor breathed heavily, the clouds getting dark around the Helicarrier. "Then what do you propose!?" He all but yelled, making some of them flinch. "No matter, whether guilty or not, Loki is still deep in the midst of this. That bodes nothing good. _I-We need her!_ We need her here and now if only to stop her nefarious mind and plans. I wish so much to believe in son of Stark's fictitious spin on this tale, but Loki isn't-…...she hasn't _been_ righteous for a long, long, time. She is corrupted and capable of so much, both good and bad. When she is like that, in the midst of a great idea, she won't stop her pursuit and many things could happen. I fear this my friend. It's a feeling of dread I can't just shake off. There isn't time for hesitation now. Not anymore." There was a flash of lightening and Steve frowned at how serious the man looked. So different from the man that had always fought Loki with hope in his eyes and a desperation only a person that loved the receiver of the stare, can make. This person, _this Thor_. He looked ready to make the hardest decision of his life.

Steve looked around and saw that all of the team had stood up. They had grim, if not uncomfortable, gazes as they stared on. They would follow Thor if he decided to go on this suicide mission, that was for sure, even if they disagreed with the reasoning. They were a team second, friends first. if Thor charged on, they would follow without question. He couldn't let them, he had to stop them. Steve took a deep breath.

A resolve came flooding into Steve that threw away all his worries.

With it came a calm from an unsaid promise. "I know Thor, but I promise you this, we'll find a resolution to this. One that all of us can live with. So, don't force yourself into doing something you'll regret. I know this is vital for everyone here, but you can't just base this type of thing on emotions. Remember the last time something like this happened to you? What Loki and your emotions caused to happen barely 5 years back?"

Thor flinched and Steve felt some guilt for reopening that fresh wound. Thor had told them many times of the man he used to be; how his doings had led to his tragic fall and disgrace. How blind he was in his ways that he unintentionally started the deterioration of his family, his sister and overall started the pathway that led to many deaths and a lot of destructions. Even when they had denied it, saying Loki was the lone culprit in her mistakes. Thor hadn't believed that.

Steve knew well why, considering his own experiences. _They all knew_.

No one is ever free of blame, but they had hoped he would believe in that lie where none of them could.

Because Thor still had hope and love for his wayward sibling. If he, being far more arrogant, proud, and reckless, could accept his faults. Thor believed Loki, _who he prided on being better then himself at times_ , held the same capacity to do so as well.

Something that, despite his annoyance and subtle resentment with said sibling, Steve didn't want Thor to lose. There was something hopeful and hauntingly beautiful in having someone try to save someone that has strayed off the right path. It was encouraging, and something very pure no matter who it came from. Something the team lacked with all their past transgressions and doings. Steve wanted Thor to stay _Thor_.

Even if it meant dealing with Loki…...no matter the consequences.

As team leader and as a friend to Thor, who would help him just the same, he would do anything to help. It was the right thing to do, no matter what would happen in the end.

This was his resolve. "Thor…. step down on this. _Please._ "

Thor frowned, staring at the stern face of his close companion. He breathed in deeply before closing his eyes. Slowly and very languidly he took a step back. He turned and sat down on the chair and let his hammer fall to the ground with a soft thud. "…...May...… _may_ we confer over this another time. As you've all said, we can do nothing now and I am tired. Maybe we can come up with _something_ else after thinking it through more. Something that is far more reasonable to all." He said with a strained voice all the Avenger chose to ignore for the man's sake.

The team sighted in relive, along with the majority of the staff in the main deck. Fury nodded. "Yes Thor, we can. I know this is an overload of information, so we'll give it time to settle. You'll get a packet of all the info, so you can review it later. For now, all we can do is wait since we have nothing to go on. We're still the Avengers, we have a job to do. This Ikol bullshit is important, but saving lives comes first. When we get more info or leads, we'll proceed then. But for now, you can all go. Maria, Romanoff, I need you work on condensing the information and summarizing the hell out of it. Send it to Coulson and make it for his eyes only. Other than that, this stays between all of us. We finally have the upper hand in knowing somethings up. I want to keep it that way. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Both woman nodded and then began to walk away.

Hawkeye followed after them and Fury gave one last look to the remaining team members. "We'll get this resolved soon." He gave a half smirk. "Like I said, we're the Avengers for god's sake."

The team gave small smiles and Nick nodded. He turned and began walking away from the table and towards the deck, a silent dismissal as any could see. Tony sighed. "Well that was a perfect end to a perfect day." He looked at Thor, shrugged and offered him a smile "Hey, c'mon big guy. How about I set up a training program that'll take your mind off of this _huh? I_ can even make it any Asgardian theme you'd like. You know, like that one you _really_ liked last time."

Thor frowned and then he looked at the man, before he nodded and smiled, shaking his head. "If it's of no problem to you, I would like that."

Tony smirked, walking to the man standing up and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about that Point break, there are drinks in the training room, I get to break stuff _per_ you, Fury will probably get annoyed with it, and I might get to blow stuff up. No matter how you look at it, we both win with this."

Thor followed the still talking, small man with a nod passing Steve. Thor smiled and petted his shoulder. He gripped it. "Thank you, my friend. Truly."

Steve could smile, watching the two men leave the deck chatting amicably. He sighed and Bruce came up to him. Bruce smiled. "You did good."

"Thanks, though I was worried for a moment there." Steve nodded as he grabbed one of the waters on the table.

Bruce chuckled. "I was too…..So what is it?"

"Hm?"

"Your plan. You sounded so confident when you were talking there I just couldn't help but think you actually had a plan to go about this whole thing. You know, _the plan_?"

Steve frowned. Then he sighted, debating internally. He smiled, a raised brow. "That easy to tell huh. I got to get better at that." He rubbed his head. "I'll tell you the truth Bruce, I have no idea how to go about this."

Bruce let out another chuckle. "I though as much. Don't worry knowing you, you're bound to make good headway on this faster than you expect. You're like a good luck charm for this sort of thing."

Steve grunted. "I _**highly**_ doubt that."

Bruce nodded after a bit. "Well that is if you ignore freezing for around eighty years and your workaholic attitude then yeah, overall you're a very lucky guy. Everyone says it, we all believe in it."

Steve sighed. "I'll say it again; I highly doubt that. Though what you said before does put a damper on things, I think this can be done."

Bruce smiled. "And It will if you're holding the reins." He put a hand on his shoulder and gripped it. "Just don't get discouraged. Loki won't see it coming."

Steve clicked his tongue. "I would hope not, that would really mess everything up."

The bespectacled man shook his head and then backed away. "Your right about that. Well, I'm going to go with Tony and Thor. I'm afraid they might damage the carrier if they're left to their own devices. You coming?"

Steve shook his head. "No…. I'm going to go over the uncondensed notes. Maybe they'll let me make some head way or at least give me decent start."

Bruce shook his head and started to walk away. "Don't work too hard, you'll get gray hairs."

Steve smiled. "Well it would certainly match my age."

Bruce chuckled as he left the main deck. Steve put the water down and grabbed the tablet. Waving goodbye to Maria and Natasha, he walked out of the deck and out into the hall. Before he knew it, he was in the infirmary in his designated room. It'd be a few hours at most until they got to the tower, and the doctor _had_ wanted him to come back for a few check-ups. Steve felt that he's all but healed except for some tiredness and languidness, but there wouldn't be any harm in doing so. Especially when it was due to Loki's doings.

He entered to an empty room, except for Tony's bag and a few of his own clothing. He walked over to the bed and laid on the hard mattress with a tired sigh. With some laziness he reached over towards Stark's bag and took out the computer. Then he saw that there was a small tablet beside it and grabbed it. He opened the computer and cleared his throat. "Hey Jarvis?"

The computer beeped and then a voice resounded. "Yes Master Rogers."

Steve smiled raising Tony's tablet up. It really would be better if all his doings stayed top-secret for the moment. "Is this tablet restricted from being hacked into?"

The tablet beeped on and soon Jarvis's interface appeared on it. "At the moment, no. This tablet is only for Master Stark to play his games and research random stuff."

Steve nodded. "Oh, well is there any way that you can encrypt this to make it, well, un-hackable and inaccessible to everyone but me?"

"Of course sir. It'll only take a few minutes." Steve smiled and then held up the tablet that Maria once had. "I already made a file of all I need on this tablet that I sent to the laptop. Do you think you can transfer the information from there and move it to the one you're securing?"

"Yes, I will include it into the process sir." Steve could only nod, watching as all the electronics turned to a dark screen with blue writing passing over it.

Steve smiled and picked up the milk that was still on his tray. He laid on the bed and closed his eyes. Minutes went by before a beep suddenly went off. The mini tablet glowed blue and all the other screens turned off. There was another beep and a voice came through it. "Transfer and securement have been downloaded and implemented on the tablet Master Rogers. The coding should be on par with those found in area 51 or the Pentagon. Which basically means the protection is very encrypted. It would take someone of master Starks caliber to access this device sir."

Steve smiled, closing the computer and moving the S.H.I.E.L.D. tablet away. He paused and then took off the gaudy red and gold case on it and put it back on the S.H.I.E.L.D. one. He put both it and the computer into the man's bag and picked up his new tablet. "Thanks Jarvis."

"No worries sir. If you take off the small attachment on the charging plug, I'll be taken off the tablets server. I would recommend it, if you don't want master Stark to snoop through your stuff." Steve only snorted and nodded.

"Once again thanks Jarvis."

"No problem sir, I will see you back at the tower."

"Of course, bye." With that, Steve unplugged the little hub attachment at the bottom, put it on the other one, zipped up the bag and laid back with the new tablet in hand. After going through the very simplified startup process Jarvis was kind enough to make for him, he was able to finish the tablets set-up by the time Tony stopped by to grab his stuff without a word to him except sticking out his tongue. When Tony left, he looked through the various files and reports S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to obtain before sighing and putting it to his side. He lifted a hand to his face and groaned.

He was out of his mind. He just _had_ to be. No one in their right mind would ever think his plan was anything but a good idea.

Seducing Loki.

God, no matter how resolved he was his brain was telling him to give it up. He had no chance. Natasha was right in saying that she was the most qualified person to do this. And if she said it couldn't be done, then okay the idea might be a little idiotic. A total fail whatsoever.

Yet here he was, mind made up on seducing one their greatest enemy to find out what she was up to and put an end to it. Even if just a few hours' prior, his team had destroyed that plan to smithereens in terms of logic, he was still adamant about it succeeding. He hadn't wanted to admit it to Stark earlier, but his plan had been really good. Sure it had its flaws, but overall it got the job that he needed done.

He just had to avoid Loki _finding_ out. Loki killing him _before_ the plan even began. Loki killing him right _afterwards_. Loki _ratting_ him out. His _team_ finding out. The _public_ finding out. Natasha finding out. Tony finding out. Fury finding out…... or worst _**Thor**_ _finding out!_

God how was he ever going to get around that detail.

An argument was one thing…this….no matter what fate lays upon him, Steve knows only one thing. It was going to hurt…. _a lot_.

It's going to hurt the team, it's going to hurt his pride and most importantly, it's going to hurt every part of his being. More than likely, due to Thor.

So no matter what, despite how much he hated it, he was going to keep this secret until he accomplished what he set out to do.

Steve sighed again.

The problem now was only one thing.

How the _**hell**_ , was he going to start this plan in the first place?

…..

He exhaled deeply.

He really wished he wasn't such a good guy at times.

With that Steve laid back on his bed, groaning about what awaited him because of his horrible plan to be.

* * *

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